IF I WERE A BOY

The Taliban completed a rapid takeover of Afghanistan after the United States and other Western countries ended their 20-year-long mission there.                                                                                                             

Since the Taliban took over in Afghanistan, people have had to find their way back into life under their radical militia.  A lot has changed for them, especially for  women.     

                                                                                    

When they were previously in power from 1996 to 2001, they banned most women and girls from education and confined women to their homes unless a male family member was with them, denying them access to most jobs or even freedom to leave their house for a walk. Women’s rights made enormous gains after the 2001 invasion. Significant progress was made in education in Afghanistan. For example,   the increasing number of female doctors and midwives was especially important so that female patients could obtain proper care, preventing more unnecessary deaths pregnancy-related.                                                                                                                                                                                   In the first few weeks after the Taliban took power the militant group’s leaders claimed that they would be more moderate. But officials said that some women’s sports, like cricket, would be banned because the bodies of female players would be exposed.

Women will still be able to attend school but they will be divided from men , which may mean fewer subjects are available to them and an Islamic dress code will be enforced. 

Women at private universities are mandated to wear burqas and cover most of their faces, which is not traditional Afghan clothing. In addition to the changing rules in schools, women have been stopped on the street if they don’t have a male relative with them. Some have been flogged or beaten; so many Afghans are staying at home afraid to venture out at all.        

Afghan Women by Shamsia Hassani

Women for Afghan Women , the largest women organization in Afghanistan, have evacuated their centres and are trying to provide safe shelter and aid to thousands of women and children. Women who have gained power and notice for advocating human rights and gender equality are especially fearful. They say they have received  threatening calls,  “you are the next” and Taliban members have gone into their homes and organizations and looked through their files 

                                                                                                                            

Unbelievably   we find ourselves reading  horrible news every day. One of the latest tragic pieces of news in October was that an Afghan volleyball girl, who was not wearing a hijab, was beheaded. 

The situation is so complicated and it is very difficult to really help Afghan women in their own country. Many women from all over the world have come together to campaign against the Taliban and to ask western governments not to forget. I think we all should join them and keep the interest alive. 

I’ll leave you with a song by Beyoncé that you can listen to in the video below, it is titled "If I were a boy". In the song she says: “If I were a boy I swear I'd be a better man".

 Alessia, 4scB