Equality is a far cry from women in the Republic of Afghanistan. Nevertheless, much has happened in the last 18 years since the fall of the Taliban: girls go to school and attend university, and more and more earn their own money after completing their education. Women claim participation in society.
Instead of Burka, many people wear only a headscarf on the street today. Women's rights are at least legally evidenced, although they are often hardly implemented in reality. That is certainly not the case where the Taliban have taken power again. The Islamists are just as radical as their predecessors in the 1990s.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Americans are about to sign an agreement to withdraw from Afghanistan - can that bring peace?
Soman Sadat: It is a treaty in which we Afghans have no share, the government is not involved. The treaty will be good for the US because they can retreat and good for the Taliban because they then take over the country. And he will be very, very bad for us Afghan women.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Since when are the Taliban back?
Sadat: On Wednesday, the Qurghan district was taken in Faryab. There is one of our women's centers. We teach women between the ages of 17 and 30 to read and write, sew and embroider, so that they earn some money and do not have to beg their fathers and husbands and be treated like slaves.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why were not the Taliban stopped by the Afghan army?
Sadat: The soldiers and the police tried to keep the district, but the Taliban came closer and closer to the governor's office and the market center. At some point, they gave up and left the center to them. Now the Taliban are everywhere. You are in charge. As early as December 2018, they had attacked the Qaramqul and Qurghan districts and the villages in the Andikhoi district for the first time. Our development courses at schools in Qaramqul have been closed for a year now.
VUSAF Womancenter
Soman Soman (archive picture)
SPIEGEL ONLINE: How is life going now?
Sadat: On Wednesday our teachers wanted to go to work in the morning with the motorcycle rickshaw, as always. On the street of Andhkoi they were stopped by about 30 Taliban. They did not ask them for an hour what exactly they were doing in the women's center. Then they sent our teachers home, saying that their work was un-Islamic. An hour later, our manager in Qurghan received a call from the Taliban saying she should close the center and leave. Since then it is closed. It is fought again and again. Meanwhile, government forces are back in control. Who knows how long?
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Taliban have said that they have changed, are more modern, more moderate. Is not that correct?
Sadat: The older ones say the new Taliban are even worse than the earlier ones in the 1990s. It used to be a sin to only look at a woman, now we hear about sexual assaults and rape. Today's Taliban no longer come from the villages, but from outside, there are foreigners among them, Chechens, for example. The strangers lead the local Taliban and spread fear and terror. Men have to grow beards again, women wear long dresses, they are not allowed to use telephones and only leave the house with one, better two male relatives. The bad thing is, our men are still encouraged to follow the Taliban rules and reinstate the old ways.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Why do you do that? Out of fear?
Sadat: Many of our fathers, husbands and brothers like the fact that the women are only allowed to leave the house in an emergency and that they can watch over us walking in the street in Burka.
VUSAF Womancenter
Teaching at the Women's Center in Faryab
SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do men also change their behavior towards their wives in their own homes when the Taliban rule?
Sadat: Many men here do not appreciate our qualification centers. It is said again, they deserve enough that the woman can stay at home. Some men were not happy with the developments of the past few years, when the women began to show their face in the street, to qualify, to work. Only their income was welcome. Women suddenly talked in the family and were involved in decisions. Our men and fathers are now beginning to think of themselves as Taliban.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What do you fear most?
Sadat: That the land will be back to what the Taliban imagine: no girls' schools, no development, no female participation, and we women end up under a jail of cloth, as illegitimate wringing machines, having as many children as possible.
