Kabul women return to their jobs, schools and streets in defiance of the Taliban

Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) – A terrorist attack did not get Atifa Watanayar to stop teaching, but now he fears the Taliban will.

Even before the militant group entered Kabul, the English teacher felt intense uncertainty and anguish.

In early May, he was at the entrance to the Sayed Al-Shuhada school, on the outskirts of the capital, and saw a explosion in front of the front door. As her students ran past her, trying to escape into the dusty courtyard below, a second and then a third bomb detonated, killing at least 85 people, many of them teenagers.

A few months later, Watanyar finds himself in the same doorway before starting his class. Young students enter the hallway, their voices echoing off a wall painted with a mural that reads “the future is brighter.”

“What should we say? Every day I see the Taliban in the streets. I am afraid. I am very afraid of these people,” he said.

In August, weeks after the school reopened, the Taliban seized power and reclaimed Afghanistan as their Islamic Emirate.

A month later, the group effectively banned female students from attending high school, ordering that the institutes reopen only for men. The group said it needed to establish a “safe transportation system” before the sixth through twelfth grade girls could return. But the Taliban made a similar excuse when they came to power in 1996. The female students never returned to class during their five years of rule.

Unable to teach her older female students, Watanyar now focuses on the younger ones, ensuring that, at least within her classroom, there is still room to dream.

Sayed Al-Shuhada School is operating again, but the older girls are unable to attend. Credit: Scott McWhinnie

“What should we do, what should we do? It’s what we can do for our sons, for our daughters, for our girls,” he said.

16-year-old Sanam Bahnia, who was injured in the terrorist attack, had the courage to go back to class.

“One of my classmates, who was killed, was someone who tried hard in her studies; when I found out that she had been immolated, I felt that I should go back to study, for the peace of her soul, I should study and build my country, to be able to make their wishes and dreams come true, “he said.

But Bahnia’s ability to deliver on that promise is in serious doubt. Now, with the Taliban banning her from going to school, she reads her textbook in the corner of her house. His favorite subject is biology, but he says he no longer allows himself to dream of being a dentist.

His rebellion against the multiple attacks on his future is taking its toll.

His voice falters as he begins to cry, saying, “The Taliban are the reason for my current state. My spirit is gone, my dreams are buried.”

The ongoing Taliban attack on women is visible throughout the city. In some cases, militants ordered women to quit your jobs, and when a group of women protested the announcement of the exclusively male government in Kabul, the militants Taliban beat them with whips and sticks.

On the streets of the Khair Khana neighborhood in northwestern Kabul, the aftermath of a recent women’s protest remains. In almost all beauty salons, images of women’s faces have been defaced. Some were quickly spray painted black, others were completely covered.

In one of the salons, the women are too scared to give their names. They say the Taliban expelled the protesters, before telling them to remove the images of women, put on the burqa and stay home.

However, despite notable difficulties, Kabul activists they keep organizing and manifesting.

This Thursday, a handful of protesters clashed with an entire Taliban unit. Just as the women were holding signs that read: “Education is human identity” and “Don’t burn our books, don’t close our schools,” military vans descended on their protest corner.

Taliban officials break up a demonstration of women demanding the right to education. Credit: AFP

Taliban fighters tore the posters from their hands, while a mounted machine gun fired a warning burst that sent spectators and journalists running.

The head of the Taliban intelligence services in Kabul, Mawlavi Nasratullah, said the women were not allowed to protest.

When asked by CNN’s Clarissa Ward why a small group of women demanding their right to be educated threatened so much, Nasratullah responded, “I respect women, I respect women’s rights. If I didn’t support women’s rights, I wouldn’t. they would be here. “

But the violence that is repeated in other protests tells a different story.

“When you leave your home to fight, you think about it all,” said protest leader Sahar Sahil Nabizada, adding that she has been repeatedly threatened but refuses to leave the country or stop organizing.

“I may die, I may be injured, and I may also come home alive. However, if I, or two or three other women are killed or injured, we basically accept the risks to pave the way for the Generations to come, at least they will be proud of us, “Nabizada said.

Most of the daily acts of defiance are smaller and less public, but just as important, activists say. More and more women are returning to Kabul’s public spaces after being locked up during the first uncertain weeks of Taliban rule.

Arzo Khaliqyar is one of those women who went back to work. This mother of five says she was forced to become a taxi driver when her husband was killed a year ago. He says he left behind his white Toyota Corolla, a common car in Kabul, but little else.

But in the weeks since the Taliban came to power, driving has become increasingly difficult and he says he receives threats on a regular basis. It has adapted by sticking to the neighborhoods it knows and collecting mostly women and families.
“I know very well [los riesgos]but I have no choice, “he said.” I have no choice. In some places where I see Taliban checkpoints, I change my route. But I have accepted this risk for the sake of my children. “