Life under Taliban 'cages' Afghan women and girls, former human rights chief says

Shaharzad Akbar fears extremists' regime is leading to mental health crisis and spate of suicides among women forced to sit idle at home

Girls playing in Kandahar. Human rights campaigner Shaharzad Akbar says the Taliban's rule means desperation for another generation of Afghan women. AFP

The futures of millions of Afghan women have been stolen by repressive Taliban policies, resulting in a mental health crisis, the former head of Afghanistan's Independent Human Rights Commission has said.

In the year since the extremist group took over Afghanistan it has imposed movement restrictions, draconian dress codes and effective education bans on women and girls.

Although Shaharzad Akbar, the 35-year-old former head of the commission, fled Kabul on the day the group took over, she is still in close touch with other Afghan women.

“There's a sense of desperation. There is a lot of hopelessness. It's really difficult actually to talk to girls, because they want answers and they want some certainty, and it's very hard to offer any of that,” Ms Akbar told The National from her home in London where she lives with her husband and two children.

She said many talented Afghan women and girls are today sitting idle in their homes. For them, it feels as if time has stood still.

“They feel like they're forgetting what they had learnt in school. They are bored and unhappy at home. They feel like the world is moving ahead, and they're completely left behind,” Ms Akbar said.

Shaharzad Akbar, the former chairperson of Afghanistan’s Independent Human Rights Commission. Photo: Shaharzad Akbar

Ms Akbar stepped down from her role at the commission in January, deciding that she would not be able to do her job properly under the repressive Taliban regime. But that does not mean she has stopped fighting for the hard-won rights of the Afghan people.

An example of Afghan persistence

Ms Akbar was a torchbearer for the empowerment and success of women in her home country.

She lived in Kabul with her family until war and unrest sparked by the collapse of the communist government of Mohammad Najibullah and the first Taliban takeover drove them from their home in the 1990s.

Her parents educated her at home as the family moved around the Northern provinces to escape the conflict. Later, they became refugees in Pakistan, where Ms Akbar was enrolled at a public school.

Even on the move, education was crucial.

“We always had books, that was really important to my father, who wanted to make sure that we had access to books. We grew up loving books, reading books,” she said.

When they returned to Kabul in 2002 from Pakistan after the fall of Taliban, Ms Akbar joined Kabul University and later was accepted to study at Smith College in the US.

There, she took a BA course in anthropology before going on to become the first Afghan woman to complete postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford in England, where she was awarded a scholarship and graduated with an MPhil in 2011.

Ms Akbar focused on youth-led civil society activities and women’s rights in Afghanistan, founding and leading local campaign groups before joining the team of former president Ashraf Ghani as an adviser in 2018.

In 2019, Ms Akbar was appointed as the chairwoman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.

The Commission’s crowning achievement under Ms Akbar was a campaign called “Put the Gun Down”, which reached out to victims of years of violence to amplify their voices and support their needs.

It also worked on entrenching the concepts of human rights, freedom of expression and women’s empowerment in Afghan society.

Ms Akbar’s role has turned into a duty of care for her commission colleagues and other Afghans, who wanted to leave the country after the Taliban takeover.

“We helped more than 100 Afghans to get out of the country to safety. We raised funds from donors and helped them process the visa applications,” she said.

A human rights organisation is an alien concept under Taliban, she said.

“My ability to exercise my mandate was officially over after fall of Kabul [in August 2021]. But I continue to encourage and advocate for my colleagues from abroad as well as continue to explore ways that the commission could remain active,” Ms Akbar said.

Trapped in a cage

To Ms Akbar and many Afghan women and girls, the policies of Taliban are an infringement of their human rights.

The hardline rulers have banned girls from joining secondary schools in almost all provinces.

“When I talk to women and girls in Afghanistan today, they say they feel that they are trapped in a cage of four walls, the walls of the house. They feel that they are being treated like animals in a zoo. There’s a real sense of attack on their dignity,” Ms Akbar said.

And there are real concerns about their deteriorating mental health amid reports of attempted suicides.

I think it's really important for everyone to realise that Taliban policies don’t represent Islam. They represent Taliban.

Shaharzad Akbar

“These young women once had a lot of ambitions. Suddenly, they feel their life is over. The only path for them is to get married and have children, not to pursue an education or be able to have an income. And that's not a future that they want. Not everyone can afford to leave Afghanistan,” she said.

Fatima Khalil. Courtesy of the family

Fresha Kohistani.

Soraya Gul's family at home, with a picture of her framed. Courtesy of the Gul family

Malalai Maiwand. Courtesy Enikass radio and tv

Malala Maiwand (centre) speaks on second day of the National Media Conference on April 22, 2018. Courtesy Center for Protection of Afghan Women Journalist

The funeral of Marziah Tahery. Stefanie Glinski for The National

Some women and girls have started schools in their houses.

That is a big risk.

“Secret schools are a sign of the Afghan women’s resistance. But fathers and parents, in general, are terrified of the Taliban as there will be grave consequences for sending their daughters to such schools,” she said.

“This is extremely stressful. Imagine that you are being treated as a criminal because you want to seek an education.”

For Ms Akbar, there has been an abundance of evidence over the past year that Taliban has learnt nothing after two decades out of power.

They are still obsessed with the control of women and make that a priority over neglected fields like education, health care and the economy.

“We have to be very careful that the engagement with the Taliban happens in a thoughtful way. And it shouldn’t come across as an opportunity to further legitimise their repressive policies,” she said.

“I think it's really important for everyone to realise that Taliban policies don’t represent Islam. They represent Taliban.”

A year of Taliban control of Afghanistan - in pictures

Military leaders attend a flag-lowering ceremony in Afghanistan on June 24, 2021 as the UK’s contribution in the country draws to a close. A number of troops were to remain to offer diplomatic assurance to the international community in Kabul. Getty Images

A member of the Afghan security personnel looks distraught as he stands guard at the site of a car bomb explosion near the defence minister's home in Kabul, on August 4, 2021. AFP

Security officials inspect the scene of an attack on Dawa Khan Menapal, the head of the Afghan government's information centre, in Kabul on August 6, 2021. Taliban militants shot him dead. EPA

People are stranded at the Pakistani-Afghan border which has been closed by the Taliban, who have taken control of the Afghan side, on August 9, 2021. EPA

US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad (2nd L) arrives at a hotel in Qatar's capital Doha for a meeting on the escalating conflict in Afghanistan, on August 10, 2021. AFP

Taliban fighters driving through Herat, Afghanistan's third-biggest city, on August 13, 2021 after under-siege government forces had pulled out the previous day. AFP

Taliban militants gather in the main square after taking control of Kandahar, Afghanistan, on August 13, 2021. The fall of Kandahar came hours after the Taliban had captured Herat. EPA

Afghanistan's president Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit military corps in Kabul on August 14, 2021. Reuters

Internally displaced families from northern provinces, who fled from their homes due to the fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces, take shelter in a public park in Kabul, Afghanistan, on August 14, 2021. EPA

People at the border checkpoint at Chaman, Pakistan on August 15, 2021. Pakistani authorities had reopened the frontier with Afghanistan on August 13 after several days of closure. EPA

Afghan police on duty on August 15, 2021 after the Taliban had taken over Kandahar. The militants have by this stage reached the outskirts of Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan. EPA

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, the Taliban's director for information and culture, talks to journalists after the government in Kandahar had surrendered to the militants. EPA

Taliban fighters and local people sit on an Afghan National Army armoured vehicle on a street in Jalalabad province on August 15, 2021. AFP

Afghan families flee Kabul on August 15, 2021. The Taliban said they do not intend to enter Kabul 'by force or war, but to negotiate with the other side to enter peacefully". Getty Images

Tens of thousands of people attempt to flee Afghanistan to escape the hardline rule expected under the Taliban, on August 15, 2021. AFP

Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul, after the president Ashraf Ghani had fled the country, on August 15, 2021. AP

Hundreds of people run alongside a US Air Force transport plane on the runway of the international airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country. Some held on to the jet as it took off and fell to their death. AP

Thousands of Afghans rush to the Hamid Karzai International Airport as they try to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 16, 2021. Getty Images

A US soldier points his gun at a man at Kabul airport on August 16, 2021, after a swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war. Thousands of people mobbed the airport in a bid to flee. AFP

Crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan, on August 16, 2021. EPA

People clamber on top a plane at the Kabul airport on August 16, 2021. AFP

These Afghan passengers made it. They sit inside a plane and wait to leave Kabul. AFP

Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, on August 17, 2021. Getty Images

British citizens living in Afghanistan board a military plane to leave Kabul Airport, on August 16, 2021. Reuters

Luggage belonging to Afghan people, who were waiting to be evacuated. at the site of two suicide bombs, which killed scores of people including 13 US troops, at Kabul airport on August 27, 2021. AFP

Afghans, including those who worked for the US, Nato, the European Union and the United Nations, wait outside Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country, after Taliban took control of Kabul, on August 17, 2021. EPA

People queue at the Pakistan-Afghanistan border point in Chaman on August 17, 2021 to cross back to Afghanistan. AFP

People wait to board a French military transport plane on August 17, 2021 to escape Kabul and Taliban rule. AFP

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban spokesman, gives his first press conference in Kabul on August 17, 2021. The new leadership said it would not seek revenge on those who had fought against them and would protect the rights of Afghan women within the rules of Sharia. EPA

Young men who say they deserted the Afghan military trudge through the countryside in Tatvan, eastern Turkey, on August 17, 2021. Turkey was concerned about increased migration across the Iranian border as Afghans fled from the Taliban. AP

A young demonstrator at a vigil in support of Afghanistan at the West Los Angeles Federal Building, California on August 17, 2021. EPA

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan holds a press briefing to talk about the recent events in Afghanistan, at the White House on August 17,2021. EPA

A Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul on August 18, 2021. AFP

People among the first evacuees from Kabul, arrive at Frankfurt International Airport in western Germany in the early hours of August 18, 2021. AFP

A transport plane evacuating refugees out of Afghanistan lands at Al Maktoum International Airport in Dubai, August 19, 2021. Pawan Singh / The National

Afghanistan's former president Ashraf Ghani talks in video message, somewhere in the UAE, on August 18, 2021, in his first media appearance since the fall of Kabul only days earlier. Reuters

Displaced children wait for the next flight at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul on August 19, 2021. AFP

An Afghan man waves a national flag to celebrate the 102nd Independence Day of Afghanistan in Kabul on August 19, 2021, days after the Taliban's military takeover of the country. AFP

The US military helps to reunite families at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 20, 2021. AFP

A US Marine comforts an infant while they wait for the mother during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021. Reuters

New personnel in the Afghan security forces take part in military training in Panjshir province on August 21, 2021. AFP

US President Joe Biden speaks to his national security team during a briefing on the situation in Afghanistan, on August 22, 2021, in Washington. AFP

Mexico's Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard welcomes members of Afghanistan's robotics team after arriving in Mexico to apply for humanitarian status on August 24, 2021. Reuters

Belongings of Afghan people, who were evacuated from Kabul, are laid on the ground at Torrejon Military Air Base on August 24, 2021 in Madrid. Getty Images

Volunteers and medical staff unload bodies from a pickup truck outside a hospital after two powerful explosions, which killed at least six people, outside the airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. AFP

Flag-draped coffins of service members killed in action are loaded on to a transport aircraft during a ramp ceremony at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 27, 2021. Reuters

Afghan evacuees at the Emirates Humanitarian City, Abu Dhabi, on August 28, 2021. Victor Besa / The National

Smoke billows after an explosion near the Hamid Karzai International Airport, in Kabul on August 29, 2021. EPA

A vigil for Max Soviak, one of 13 US service members killed in the airport suicide bombing in Afghanistan's capital Kabul, in Berlin Heights, Ohio on August 29, 2021. Reuters

A Taliban member stands guard near a vehicle which was used to fire rockets at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. EPA

World Health Organisation supplies land in Afghanistan. Photo: WHO

Major Gen Chris Donahue, commander of the US Army 82nd Airborne Division, XVIII Airborne Corps, boards a C-17 cargo plane at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 30, 2021. His departure closes the US mission to evacuate US citizens, Afghan Special Immigrant Visa applicants and vulnerable Afghans. AFP

Fireworks after the last US aircraft took off from the airport in Kabul early on August 31, 2021, signalling its complete withdrawal after 20 years in the country. AFP

Afghans wait for the banks to open in Kabul on August 31, 2021. AFP

An Afghan Air Force A-29 attack aircraft inside a hangar at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021, after the US pulled all its troops out of the country. AFP

Taliban fighters sit in the cockpit of an Afghan Air Force aircraft at the airport in Kabul on August 31, 2021. AFP

An Afghan resistance movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces rest as they patrol on a hilltop in Panjshir province on September 1,2021. Panjshir remains the last major holdout of anti-Taliban forces led by Ahmad Massoud, son of the famed mujahideen leader Ahmed Shah Massoud. AFP

The UAE sends a plane carrying urgent medical and food aid to Afghanistan, as part of its contribution to provide the basic and necessary needs of thousands of Afghan families, especially the most vulnerable groups such as women, children and the elderly, September 3, 2021. Wam

Afghan women's rights defenders and civil activists protest to call on the Taliban for the preservation of their achievements and education, in front of the presidential palace in Kabul on September 3, 2021. Reuters

The main money exchange market in Kabul reopens on September 4, 10 days after the Taliban takeover. Currency dealers have been hit hard by the fall in value of the Afghani currency. EPA

Passengers board a plane as domestic flights resume across Afghanistan, at Ahmad Shah Baba International Airport in Kandahar on September 5, 2021. EPA

Protesters reflected in the sunglasses of a demonstrator during a rally in support of Afghanistan's people after the takeover of the country by the Taliban, at the Place de la Republique, in Paris on September 5, 2021. AFP

A Taliban fighter stands guard at a market in Kabul on September 5, 2021. AFP

A suspected ISIS member sits blindfolded in a Taliban Special Forces' car in Kabul on September 5, 2021. Reuters

Children stand outside the former US embassy in Kabul where the banner of the 'Islamic Emirate' has replaced previous murals, on September 8, 2021. Stefanie Glinski for The National

A veiled student speaks to a gathering of female students before a pro-Taliban rally at the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on September 11, 2021. AFP

Taliban fighters take a selfie after they stormed and overran the home of the Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum in the Sherpur neighborhood of Kabul. on September 11, 2021. AFP

Members of Afghanistan's national girls football team arrive at the Pakistan Football Federation in Lahore on September 15, 2021, a month after the hardline Taliban swept back into power. AFP

Afghan students separated by a partition attend a class at Mirwais Neeka University in Kandahar on September 20, 2021. The Taliban had officially announced the segregation of male and female students in all government and private universities. EPA

A young girl from Afghanistan hides under a truck carrying fruit and vegetables as she attempts to smuggle herself over the border from Afghanistan into Pakistan on September 12, 2021. Everyday dozens of children from Afghanistan smuggle themselves over the border into Pakistan to sell Paan and other goods before smuggling themselves back again. At least one child is injured each day trying to cross the border like this. Oliver Marsden for The National

Afghan girls at a school in Kandahar on September 26, 2021. AFP

Afghans gather outside the passport office after Taliban officials announced they will start issuing passports to its citizens again, in Kabul, October 6, 2021. Reuters

Sohail Ahmadi, an Afghan baby boy who went missing during the disordered evacuation process in Kabul after the takeover by the Taliban in August 2021, is reunited with his grandfather and aunt on January 10, 2022. EPA

Zakia, an economics student who dropped out of university after the Taliban took power, at her home on the outskirts of Kabul on January 24, 2022. AFP

A burqa-clad woman walks along a street in Kabul on May 7, 2022. The Taliban had just imposed some of the harshest restrictions on Afghanistan's women since they seized power, ordering them to cover fully in public, ideally with the traditional burqa. AFP

An Afghan vendor displays a burqa at his shop at Mandawi market in Kabul on May 8, 2022. AFP

Khatira Ahmadi (L) and Tehmina (R), Afghan presenters at Tolo TV, read news at the studio in Kabul on May 23. Female television presenters and reporters in Afghanistan appeared with their faces covered to comply with a mandate issued by the Taliban. EPA

Afghan women prisoners in Kandahar on July 26. EPA