Women’s Protests in Afghanistan: When Theocratic Powers Quell Democratic Protests

Amina Levites-Cohen, ’22

During August of 2021, the Taliban, an Islamic fundamentalist group, toppled Afghanistan’s government.1 The government, which had been backed by the United Nations, was put into place after the September 11 terrorist attacks prompted war between the United States and Afghanistan. At its conception, the government based itself on a constitution that required elections and boasted protections for women’s and other minorities’ rights.2 The Taliban’s swift takeover of major Afghan cities, including Afghanistan’s capital Kabul, coincided with the United States’ military departure from the country. While initially, the Taliban had promised to regard the rights of women “within [their] frameworks of sharia (Islamic law),” the group has imposed new harsh restrictions that target women.3 For example, under Taliban rule, women are required to wear a burqa outside. Women must also have a mahram, or male chaperone, escort them when they travel. The Taliban has also cracked down on women’s education, enforcing gender-segregated classrooms and banning women and girls from secondary and higher education.4 Because of the Taliban’s restrictions on women, the new Afghan government represents a loss of democracy and free expression in Afghanistan.

New limitations on fundamental women’s rights are reminiscent of restrictions imposed on women by the Taliban in the 1990s. One glaring similarity is the Taliban’s reestablishment of The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice. This government agency is often (and aptly) cited as the Taliban’s “morality police.”5 The Ministry is the primary enforcer of Islamic law and is famous for holding public floggings to make examples of rule-breakers. To add insult to injury, The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has replaced the Women’s Ministry. While women’s rights in Afghanistan were by no means up to western standards before the Taliban resurfaced in 2021, the Women’s Ministry was an acknowledgement of the need for improvement of women’s rights.6 Female employees at the Women’s Ministry were locked out of the government building in September of 2021 after weeks of being turned away from work by new government officials. The slew of firings of female government employees at the beginning of the Taliban’s takeover indicated the sweeping limitations that would soon follow.7

Women in Afghanistan have met the Taliban’s harsh new

restrictions with peaceful protests, only to be subdued and threatened by the Taliban. One organizer of such protests is Khujasta Elham. Every month, Elham is forced to sign into her office to prove that she is going into work. However, Elham has not worked since the Taliban took over in August, nor has she been paid. She signs into her office once a month to cooperate with the Taliban’s attempt to prove that they have allowed women to remain in government, when in fact, they have fired all women in government agencies. Angered by the seemingly dismal future she and other Afghan women face, Elham has taken to the streets to participate in peaceful protests. In addition to beatings. Taliban officials have sprayed chemicals at protesters. As an organizer of these protests, Elham says she has received threatening phone calls from the Taliban warning her of prison and unstated “consequences.”8 Elham’s story signifies the Taliban’s violent attempt to curb dissent and freedom of expression. The Taliban has worked methodically to decommission any resources designed to aid women and expand women’s rights. Along with the replacement of the Women’s Ministry with The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Taliban has rooted out organizations that provide women with legal counsel or advocate for women’s rights. Many women’s rights activists have fled Afghanistan for fear of persecution. Female police officers were also victims of the Taliban’s erasure of women from government agencies. The Taliban reportedly killed two female police officers, one of whom was pregnant, at the start of its takeover.9 Zarifa Ghafari, one of Afghanistan’s first female mayors says that the “Taliban are trying to erase women’s presence — erase them from the walls, from the streets, from schools, from work, from government.” As a target of the Taliban, Ghafari bore witness to the threats the Taliban used to take over Afghanistan’s government and curb Female employees at the Women’s Ministry were free expression. Despite having fled her home for Germany in August of 2021, Ghafari advocates for the strength locked out of the government of women in the face of the Taliban’s building in September of attempts to target women’s rights.10 2021 after weeks of being turned away from work by new government officials. Freedom House, an organization that aims to rank nations based on how democratic they are gives the Talibancontrolled Afghanistan a 27/100 on its democracy score. The organization cites political coercion and the marginalization of women as reasons for this scoring. For example, the amount of registered women voters in Afghanistan dropped from 41 percent in 2010 to 34 percent in 2018. Since these statistics were reported, Freedom House says that “women’s political participation has been constrained by threats, harassment, and social restrictions.” Also, the criminal justice system fails women; women are jailed for straying from their families’ wishes relating to marriage and while 51 percent of women have experienced domestic violence, only a fraction of the perpetrators of such crimes are brought before a court.11 The data from Freedom House show that the Taliban not only ignores violations of women’s rights, but is complicit