In shock, Nilaab is dead: a young girl’s reaction to a suicide bomber killed in Kabul after a year in exile

The Taliban took over Afghanistan for the first time when she was 5 years old, and her parents packed their bags and fled.

The new government was quick with assurances that this time would be different, that the Taliban of the 2020s was not the Taliban of the 1990s, and that there would be no brutal campaign of repression against the women of Afghanistan.

Maybe they were telling the truth, Nilaab thought. She wanted that to happen. She returned to her home after a decade in exile, but wasn’t eager to do it again.

After this tragic event, Pierre had an interesting encounter with the Afghans in Rome as the visuals editor for the story.

A week after a suicide bomber killed 53 students in Kabul’s predominantly Hazara ethnic neighborhood, an Afghan friend sent me a poster via WhatsApp promoting a protest against attacks on Hazaras — largely Shia Muslims who have historically been persecuted by Sunni militant groups.

The protest was emotional and intense. A white smoke flare was set off, young women hit the ground and played dead. They were re-enacting the suicide bombing. A mother clutched her child and sobbed into his hair. Everywhere I looked, I saw tears. It was very sad.

I saw two men holding a large poster with pictures of young women who died in the suicide bombing and I instantly recognized two of their faces: Marzia and her cousin, Hajar.

Just a few days before, I was reviewing photos of the girls sent to us by Marzia’s family. I pulled the story up on my phone and showed it to the men holding up the poster. The man looked at me and said that he was their teacher.

The Taliban wanted to know where Hussaini was. The principal quickly texted the teacher to warn him. Hussaini was in the middle of a lesson when he ignored the text. Then, the principal called him and urged him to leave as soon as possible.

They asked the principal to show them surveillance footage from inside the classrooms; there were cameras everywhere throughout the school for security reasons. The principal obliged.

When Taliban saw him, I asked him what he thought of his family, Marzia and Hajar, Afghanistan: “We will make your face white”

The Taliban saw a lecture by Hussaini. He was a math teacher but had degrees in economics and business management. In the footage, he was lecturing about how worse off the economy was since the Taliban banned women from getting an education and being able to work.

He ran through a back door when he stopped teaching. He went home and left Kabul the next day. He took refuge in Afghanistan’s Daykundi Province, which is far from the capital and has a majority of ethnic Hazaras.

I asked Hussaini what he thought of Marzia and Hajar. His face lit up. His parents are shopkeepers, and he said they loved learning. They were his top students. The other would be number two if the best grades were in the class. He said that they loved learning.

At the local event called Teachers Day, the girls said something to him. The date was Oct. 5, 2020. Marzia and Hajar told him: “We will make your face white.”

It was a statement I hadn’t heard before. It is a phrase that is used in Afghanistan. It means that they will make him proud of all of their accomplishments.

The Taliban’s “Taliban”: “It’s a nightmare” for the Taliban and “the horrible consequences that the Taliban can’t tolerate”

Researchers and Western diplomats who maintain contacts with high-level Taliban officials say the ban on girls attending school came from the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada and a handful of other ultra-hardliners who surround him.

The Taliban took over the country in August 2001 and has been cracking down on Afghan women ever since.

The Taliban were ousted in 2001 by a U.S.-led coalition for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and returned to power after America’s chaotic departure last year.

The decision was announced after a government meeting. Private and public universities were told in the letter to inform the ministry of the ban once it is in place.

The university ban has been denounced by countries that are majority Muslim, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the US, and the G-7 nations which warned that it will cause trouble for the Taliban.

I can not fulfill my dreams. The third-year journalism and communication student said that everything is disappearing before his eyes. She did not want to be identified for fear of reprisals.

Is it a crime to be a girl? She wished she was not a girl, if that’s the case. “My father had dreams for me, that his daughter would become a talented journalist in the future. That is no longer standing. How will a person feel about this situation?

“God willing, I will continue my studies in any way. I’m starting online studies. If it doesn’t work, she’ll have to leave the country and go somewhere else.

It’s difficult to see how a country can progress when there isn’t active participation of women and education, said UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

The U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations (UNAM) condemned the Taliban’s “New Low” on Human Rights and Human Rights”

The deputyU.S. ambassador to the UN said that the Taliban must respect the rights of all Afghans before they can be accepted into the international community.

Despite the Taliban’s request to represent Afghanistan at the United Nations, the previous government led by former President Ashraf Ghani still holds the seat.

The Afghanistan’s charge d’affairs said that the announcement marks a new low in violation of the most fundamental human rights for all of humanity.

ToNPR confirmed the news with a spokesman for the ministry of higher education who made an announcement on social media.

“What news could be worse than this?” said Zahra in a voice message to NPR, left in response to a question about how she felt. She asked her family name not to be used because she would be identified by Taliban officials. “I’ve been shaking with anger. I can’t even cry.”

In March, they abruptly withdrew their promise to allow most girls back to school after the international community was promised the ban was temporary. Many female students returned to class when their teachers kicked them out because of the sudden decision. Many students broke down in tears.

Taliban officials have since given an array of pretexts for the continued ban, from wanting to review the girls’ curriculum to discussions over their uniforms.

Women still attended university with strict conditions, including covering their hair and faces at all times, wearing long, loose black robes, and adhering to strict gender segregation. It is not clear how many women were still attending university.

“Life is not so good for me”: A 22-year-old girl’s perspective on life in a world without a Muslim

He believes certain Taliban officials spread the rumors in order to cause international pressure that would lead to a rethink of the ban.

Baheer thinks that the man in charge believes that an Islamic society should look like. He had a specific view on where women or young girls should live in the society. For all intents and purposes, this is a gender discrimination. This is nothing short of that.”

Many world leaders called on the Taliban to reverse its decision as the news was met with widespread condemnation.

Another 21-year-old, Maryam, is intimately familiar with the dangers of pursuing education as a woman. As a high school student, she’d been in the vicinity of an attack on Kabul University several years ago, and remembers being evacuated “while bullets were flying over our heads.”

Now, she said, “everything is over for me. I wanted to be a good person in the community, be an engineer, and be educated so that I could serve people. It is not possible for me to do that anymore. Life means nothing for me.”

The Taliban’s Return to Power: A Shocking Example of the U.S. Security Forces Barging into a Teacher’s Classroom

In one instance, a teacher reported security forces barging into his class, shouting at girls to go home. “Some of students started verbal arguments with them, but they didn’t listen. “My students left their classes, crying, and I was the one who cried the most.” Waheed Hamidi is an English-language teacher.

The move was expected by observers as the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Akhundzada imposes his vision of a strict Afghanistan, even if it is not by the hardline group’s standards.

The former minister of tertiary education, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, allowed women to attend universities, even under strict conditions such as wearing face coverings and adhering to segregation. But in October, Haqqani was replaced with known hardliner, Nida Mohammad Nadim, who had expressed his opposition to women receiving an education. He is known to be close to Akhundzada.

Another woman who runs tuition centers for high school girls is waiting for a decision from the Taliban on whether or not she can keep operating.

The man in broken English said he didn’t sleep. She promised that she would defend their interests after all the girls called. She burst into tears after that.

Mohammadi said she only employed and taught women, abiding by the Taliban’s strict gender segregation rules. Her students wear black robes and black face veils to and from school to ensure they do not offend patrolling Taliban forces. “They wear the hijab,” she said. The follow “all the rules of Taliban.”

Zalmay Khalilzad, the U.S. envoy who was the architect of the Taliban’s return to power through an agreement struck with Washington to withdraw American and Western forces, described the move as “shocking and incomprehensible” to a Pakistani newspaper. It enraged Afghans on Twitter. It even appeared to rouse the ire of former senior diplomats.

NATO’s last senior civilian representative to Afghanistan, Stefano Pontecorvo retweeted another former Afghan diplomat, Jawed Ludin, saying, “I’m shocked by how so many people are shocked. What did you all expect? Really?

How terrible is the group of girls that you can’t teach us about Afghanism? The former Afghan president has spoken out against the suspension

She said it was a terrible scene. “Most of the girls, including myself, were crying and asking them to let us go in … If you lose all your rights and you can’t do anything about it, how would you feel?”

The group has stripped away the hard-won freedoms they have fought for over the last twenty years in order to protect the rights of girls and women.

“I always thought that we could overcome our sorrow and fear by getting educated,” she said. This time is different. It is just unacceptable and unbelievable.”

In a statement on Twitter, former Afghan President Ashraf Ghani – who fled Kabul when the Taliban seized power – called the group illegitimate rulers holding “the entire population hostage.”

The problem of women’s work and education in the country is serious, sad, and the most obvious and cruel example of gender discrimination in the 21st century. If a girl becomes literate, she will change five future generations and if she remains uneducated, she will also cause the destruction of five future generations.

Hamid Karzai, former Afghan president, expressed regret over the suspension. He wrote that the education and training of every child, girl, and boy in this land was crucial to the country’s development.

The British Prime Minister, US State Department, and US Ambassador to Afghanistan all made the same statements.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/22/asia/taliban-bans-female-students-afghanistan-reaction-intl-hnk/index.html

Maryam, 20, was killed in a September 11 attack at a Kabul education center – a story of a friend of mine who lost their lives

“Preventing half of the population from contributing meaningfully to society and the economy will have a devastating impact on the whole country,” said the UN mission in Afghanistan in a statement.

She narrowly escaped a suicide attack at an education center in Kabul in September that left at least 25 people dead. The attack sparked public outrage and horror, with dozens of women taking to the streets of Kabul afterward in protest.

It was only a few seconds after the blast that Maryam missed it. When she ran back into her classroom, she was met with the scattered bodies of her friends.

She said that the brushes with death solidified her determination and gave her the chance to dream of her dead friends.

She decided to stay in her hometown and rebuild the destroyed education center instead of going to college after the bombing. She wanted the rest of the girls to continue their educations.

“I am just lost. She told CNN she didn’t know what to say. “Since last night, I have been imagining every friend of mine who lost their lives in the Kaaj attack. What was their sacrifice for?

The Taliban Have Banned Women from Working For Non-Governing Groups in Afghanistan: A Brief Report from Economy Ministry Qari Din Mohammed Hanif

Afghan women have demonstrated in major cities against the ban in a rare sign of domestic protest since the Taliban seized power. The decision has also caused international outrage.

The NGO order came in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, which said that any organization found not complying with the order will have their operating license revoked in Afghanistan. The spokesman of the ministry confirmed the letter’s content to The Associated Press.

The ministry said it had gotten “quite a few complaints” about female staff not wearing their headscarf. It is not yet clear if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women working at the NGOs.

More details were not immediately available amid concerns the latest Taliban move could be a stepping-stone to a blanket ban on Afghan women leaving the home.

“It’s a heartbreaking announcement, I teach people about issues such as gender-based violence”, said a master trainer at an NGOs. “Are we not human beings? Why are they treating us with this cruelty?”

The 25-year-old, who works at Y-Peer Afghanistan and lives in Kabul, said her job was important because she was serving her country and is the only person supporting her family. “Will the officials support us after this announcement? She wondered why they were snatching meals from our mouths if not.

“The job gives me more than just a job, it’s a representation of all the efforts I’ve made,” she said, but didn’t give her name fearing for her safety.

Source: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/25/1145465257/the-taliban-have-banned-women-from-working-for-ngos-in-afghanistan

The U.N.’s ban on university education for women in Herat — a protest against the Taliban security force that killed hundreds of women

“Taking away the free will of women to choose their own fate, disempowering and excluding them systematically from all aspects of public and political life takes the country backward, jeopardizing efforts for any meaningful peace or stability in the country,” a U.N. statement said.

He gave no further details, and did not elaborate on the ages affected with the ban or how it would be enforced. The measure only applies to mosques in the capital city.

The Taliban security forces used a water cannon on women protesting against the ban on university education for women in the western city of Herat.

The women were pushing back against the security forces, chanting “Education is our right”, when they were pushed back by the water cannon.

The AP shared video of the women screaming and hiding in a side street to escape the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”

The women went in small groups from all around the city to a central meeting point, according to one of the protest organizers. She did not give her last name for fear of reprisals.

“There was security on every street, every square, armored vehicles and armed men,” she said. The Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us when we started our protest. We continued our protest. They increased their security presence. Around 11 a.m. they brought out the water cannon.”

The Minister of Higher Education in the Taliban government spoke about the ban for the first time in an interview on Thursday.

They have banned girls from middle school and high school — and now universities — and also barred women from most fields of employment. Women have been banned from parks and gyms for wearing head-to-toe clothing in public.

Afghan society, while largely traditional, had increasingly embraced the education of girls and women over the past two decades of a U.S.-backed government.

She graduated high school 3 years early and is studying in Afghanistan. For years, she’s dreamed of becoming an engineer, both to rebuild her country and to prove that women could work in what’s often seen there as a male field.

Though the regime allowed women to continue university education at first, “I did not trust them,” M.H. said. She was only allowed into universities every other day to ensure total gender segregation after the takeover so she searched for online courses to fill her time. She secured a scholarship to the University of the People in 2021, which is a private online university. The qualifications of the University of the People are equivalent to a college degree in the U.S. Unless internet and electricity are unavailable, M.H studies online seven days a week.

Other organizations are experiencing similar demand. “I get a lot of messages on social media asking about courses for girls.” An Afghan teacher who runs an organization that offers online courses for college students said since the university ban, she has been getting many requests for online courses.

Vocational training is available in Afghanistan, but not university degrees. It currently enrolls more than 400 students. Nearly all courses are conducted online. They use rooms with computers that are hooked up to generators in secret locations to avoid Taliban detection.

Afghanistan’s big barriers to online education are the lack of reliable internet, electricity and infrastructure.

She says that power was not always available in southern Afghan provinces before the Taliban takeover. It is hard to convince donors that we are spending a lot of money on portable batteries because it is common practice in the West to take luxuries for granted.

There are bureaucratic obstacles standing in the way. No government in Afghanistan has ever recognized online degrees, Durrani says. If Afghan female students are allowed back into universities and industries, we don’t know if they will benefit, unless the government in Afghanistan makes room for the many online course graduates.

It is unfair to restrict women’s education and careers to only those fields they can study online, says Durrani. Some women might want to be a doctor or an Engineer who cannot be studied online.

Having been denied her rightful engineering degree, M.H. is now focused on excelling at her computer science coursework. It is hard for women to study abroad, but it can be done by securing a visa in one of the neighboring countries. Women do in fact leave with difficulty. They’re expected to have a male guardian accompany them but often are able to leave without one.

M.H. hopes her cumulative grade point average of 3.84 out of 4 will earn admission to a Master’s degree program in another country. “It doesn’t matter to me which country,” she says. “I just want to go to a better country where at least I have electricity and internet so I can study something and be someone who can contribute to my society.”