It was going to be just a short vacation.
She would only be out of Afghanistan for a week;
her husband and her two-year-old son a little older, since the collapse of the nation had been rumbling for some time and the future was already running towards a black hole.
All, however, had a return ticket to Kabul.
But it was the morning of August 15, 2021, and the one they took was the last commercial flight out of the Afghan capital.
A few hours later, the Taliban were masters again.
Since then, Shaharzad Akbar has been in exile in the UK.
Born in 1987 and raised in a refugee camp in Pakistan, she is one of the best-known Afghan human rights activists.
She was the first Afghan to study at Oxford, later held prestigious positions in government and international institutions, until reaching the presidency of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission with which, since 2019, she has been investigating the brutality of the conflict to give voice and dignity to the victims.
Like all democratic bodies, this Commission was also erased by the Taliban with a stroke of the pen.
And today, almost eight months after the departure of the US Army, Afghanistan is experiencing the worst humanitarian catastrophe in its history: 24 million inhabitants, out of a total of 38, need humanitarian aid;
3,
4 million internally displaced persons;
5.7 million refugees in five bordering states.
A Middle Ages of female segregation, child labor and epidemics.
Shaharzad Akbar misses no opportunity to denounce the hypocrisy of the international community, which has filled its mouth with human rights and democracy for his country while fueling corruption and impunity.
And from the United States, which has abandoned the Afghans in the rubble of a war that is as destructive as it is useless.
"Our history must remind the world of the limits of military interventions," says the young activist, "which can never provide stability, human rights and security, but rather the opposite."
Shaharzad Akbar, seven months pregnant, offers her testimony in Italy thanks to the association No Peace Without Justice.
Her voice cracks and she gets emotional just at a question.
The last of this interview.
Question:
Is there a frame from August 15, 2021 that you can't forget?
Answer:
They were all shocking images: the Taliban in the presidential palace, through the streets of the city that I loved so much.
The despair at the airport;
people were willing to risk their lives clinging to the planes, rather than go back to the Taliban.
Something broke inside of me.
Shortly before, at the end of July, I was with my sister among the wonderful landscapes of Panshir, and I thought: everyone in the world should know the beauty of Afghanistan.
It's not fair that it's not possible.
Q:
Until then had you never thought of leaving the country?
It had been months since the Taliban had intensified their offensive.
A:
We didn't think they would take over so quickly.
The Americans repeated that there would be a peace process, and my Commission was working on it, on how to guarantee that the victims would be heard.
We were not prepared for full control with weapons.
Q:
As president of the Independent Human Rights Commission, have you received death threats?
A:
The situation in Afghanistan is not safe for any rights defender.
Many have been illegally detained and tortured: I would say it is a high risk job.
In the Commission, we have lost seven colleagues due to Taliban violence.
One was a young man who worked for children's rights, had just married and had a six-month-old daughter;
he was kidnapped for three days, in september 2019, all the negotiations failed and the taliban killed him.
In June 2020, a 25-year-old colleague was murdered on her way to the office;
she had only been working with the Commission for three months and was full of hope.
They had planted explosives on her street.
She and the driver were killed instantly.
In January 2020,
Q:
Why unleash the violence precisely at that time?
A:
The Taliban knew that the Americans were about to leave and wanted to ensure that, if the announced peace process was achieved, far fewer voices would be raised in favor of human rights.
If, on the other hand, they seized power by force, they would encounter less resistance.
They intended to send the majority to the cemetery, and thus, those who were left alive would leave the country.
This was his strategy, which intensified every day.
Every day I changed the route and the time to go to the office.
I was traveling in an armored car that my driver checked from top to bottom every morning and we made no stops along the way.
Every morning I would get in the car wondering if I would ever see my son again at night.
For more than a year, every day there was an accident and we always asked ourselves: “My God,
Who have we lost today?
The hardest thing I have ever done in my life has been to visit the families of the comrades we had lost.
Every morning I would get in the car wondering if I would ever see my son again at night.
Q:
What results have you achieved with the Human Rights Commission?
And what will happen to his work now?
A:
We have contributed to improving the legal system by aligning regulations with international commitments.
Laws have been approved against torture, for the protection of children and against gender violence, and the Penal Code has been humanized, eliminating the retaliation law.
The Commission raised awareness of human rights, trained defenders, established protection for them, and advocated for transitional justice and victims' rights, in order to settle accounts with the past.
The victims of the war have finally come together to articulate their demands for the kind of future and peace they would like;
If we want real peace, and not the Taliban's version of peace, we need to get back to this conversation.
But it is not easy to continue the work of the Commission as exiles.
We asked the UN to create a Human Rights Council for Afghanistan, that is, a "fact-finding mission", but they only accepted the figure of a Special Rapporteur, who is a single person with a small team.
It is better than nothing, but it is very little, without a full investigation order that allows a thorough investigation of the violations committed.
Q:
Your country is experiencing a terrible humanitarian crisis.
How do you think he will recover?
A:
To begin with, humanitarian aid is not the answer, and it is not sustainable in the long term;
distributing food, medicine and assistance is not enough.
People need a job to lead a decent life, and for that the country needs an economy.
This requires above all a sense of urgency, that is, leaders who really care about the conditions of citizens and want to change things, working every day to end, little by little, the dependence on humanitarian aid.
But the Taliban are incapable of governing.
They do not understand the compromises they have to reach or the challenges they face, and this puts the international community in an uncomfortable situation, because if it creates instruments to build and consolidate the country's economy,
it will appear that the Taliban is being strengthened.
And in fact, it is so.
Humanitarian aid is not the answer and is not sustainable in the long term
Q:
You stated that most European states do not have embassies in Afghanistan, they only talk to Taliban representatives, and therefore they do not know the real situation.
So what is the correct attitude the world should have towards the Taliban?
A:
Your involvement is important.
We cannot say “We are not talking to each other”, because the Taliban are responsible for the lives of 38 million Afghans.
But the exchange must be critical.
The Taliban declare that they do not violate rights, that they do not repress protesters, that they respect women and freedom of expression;
Western diplomats must confirm that they know how things stand, and that for them the human rights chapter is fundamental.
They must listen to civil society to get real information about what is happening and continue to challenge the Taliban.
Any humanitarian aid must be conditional: if the Taliban ask for help to contribute to the national budget, they must take steps towards rights.
And the first step is to abolish
apartheid
Women's.
Q:
Afghan women have suddenly lost those few hard-won rights.
How would you describe your situation today?
A:
It has gotten worse.
The only good news is that, thanks to international pressure, universities have been opened up to women in many provinces.
The Taliban have also promised to reopen secondary schools for girls;
It remains to be seen if they keep their word.
At the moment, Afghanistan is the only country in the world where a ban on secondary education for girls is in force, while, during the Doha agreements, in February 2020, the Taliban assured the Americans: "Don't worry, we will not abolish the female education.
They lied.
I recently reminded an American diplomat who was trying to convince me that the Taliban have changed.
The Taliban are simply lying just as they lied in Doha.
Universities are open to women, but classes are segregated:
only women teach women, and men teach men.
It is illogical, but it is something, if we think that on August 15, 2021, the Taliban told millions of girls who were studying secondary education, as well as women who worked in the Ministries: "Stay at home, we will notify you when you can return ”.
'If you were a good wife, your husband wouldn't hit you,' judges tell women who denounce
Today women can only work in education and health, nothing else.
If they protest, they are arrested.
Not to mention the most fragile, such as victims of domestic violence: before they could report it to our Commission or to the Ministry of Women, and maybe they managed to get the abusive husband to end up behind bars, or at least take refuge in shelters.
Today the only option is to live with her abuser.
The Ministry of Women's Affairs has been replaced by the Ministry of Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, an additional means of controlling women.
And if your husband hits you, be glad he doesn't kill you.
Protected houses no longer exist, neither does my Commission.
'If you were a good wife, your husband wouldn't hit you,' judges tell women who denounce.
It is already known: for the Taliban,
Q:
In a tweet on March 8, you wrote: "For an Afghan woman, it is now hard to hope or see the light."
Did she see any light before the return of the Taliban?
A:
Also in the past we had a lot to be frustrated about.
Every day there were episodes of sexism in government institutions, the laws were flawed, women faced too many social and traditional barriers;
those who were part of the police and the Army suffered sexual harassment.
The female reality has never been rosy, but the difference was that we had a Constitution that enshrined our rights and laws that protected women.
Now the law is the Taliban.
It is illegal for women to study, work or travel alone.
Before, thanks to the laws, we had glimpsed a path to a better future, no matter how complicated it was.
What is our path now?
In theory, the Constitution still exists, because a new one has not been promulgated, but in fact, we are in a legal limbo.
When I feel like joking, I say I'm glad I'm not a Taliban judge, because what laws could I apply?
But meanwhile, women are organizing inside and outside the country with information campaigns, letters to the UN... The Taliban cannot silence us.
Q:
In January, the Taliban met for the first time with some Western governments in Norway.
Many Afghan activists protested how they were received, as true heads of state.
You, on the other hand, wrote that it was an important step: why?
A:
Because you have to involve the Taliban.
The Oslo meeting was poorly managed and poorly communicated, I understand that the activists have read in it a normalization of the Taliban government, I share their concern.
But let us not forget that representatives of Afghan civil society speaking on human rights were heard in Norway, and such a dialogue could never have taken place on Afghan soil.
We don't know if dialogue with the Taliban will work, but we must try.
We don't know if dialogue with the Taliban will work, but we must try
Q:
Today it is difficult for the media to remember Afghanistan.
Europe is shaken by the war in Ukraine, and the entire continent is mobilizing to help Ukrainian refugees, with an unconditional welcome that we have never seen for those fleeing conflicts in Syria, Yemen or Afghanistan, not to mention wars from Africa.
How does an Afghan person feel about it?
A:
I am delighted that Ukrainian refugees are welcome in Europe.
I know how difficult it is to leave your home, your family, your city.
leave your life
The least they deserve is to be welcomed.
But on the other hand, it hurts me very much that refugees from other countries do not receive the same welcome.
There are Afghans, evacuated in August precisely by the Americans, who still live in limbo, in Kosovo, Albania or Dubai, with their children and elderly parents, and do not know what will become of them.
A colleague of mine, who was evacuated in August, has finally been welcomed in Canada;
He has spent all these months in a hotel in Albania, without permission to move, and his wife gave birth there.
He risked being sent back to Afghanistan where, as a human rights defender, he would be killed.
Other Afghans in Dubai were told: “Sorry,
they cannot stay here, they must return”.
And they are people who in Afghanistan have worked for the United States and for the Europeans;
precisely for this reason their lives are in danger, and they have been abandoned.
The comparison with the Ukrainian refugees hurts us, because it is a clear example of double standards, but it also says a lot about the state of the world: when we talk about human rights, the basic concept is that we are all equal.
All refugees are the same.
Q:
You have a young child and are about to have your second: what do you want for your future?
Could they live in Afghanistan or will they keep their distance?
A:
I am divided, and it is a new feeling for me.
I have always wanted them to get to know Afghanistan, for their future to be there.
I chose to give birth to my first child in Kabul, although I could have gone to the UK because my husband has dual nationality, but at that moment I wanted him to feel that strong attachment to Afghanistan that has enriched my life, despite the pain that has caused.
Today, however, I don't know if I want him and his little brother to feel love for such an unstable country, not knowing if one day they will be able to spend their lives there.
I do not know anymore.
Today my only wish is that you become men full of compassion and kindness.
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