Islamabad: It was a big opportunity for Shahnaz Vakili, a 22-year-old Kabul resident, when she got a scholarship to study at a private university in Pakistan earlier this year. It was her ticket out of a land where women’s dreams of a higher education are being held hostage to arbitrary rulings imposed in the garb of religious diktat.
When her time to fly out arrived, however, the reality of a woman’s life under the Taliban presented one final hurdle. At the Kabul airport, she said, her passport was seized, and returned only after her flight had taken off.
Why? Because she went to the airport alone — without a ‘late sharati‘, or a male chaperone that women are obligated to have if they wish to travel over a certain distance, according to the Taliban’s interpretation of the Sharia.
“When I went to the airport, the Taliban took my passport. I waited for almost three hours,” Vakili said. “But they did not allow me to travel. When the flight time passed, they returned our passports and we came back home. It was very painful.”
“It was not only me… dozens of other girls were not allowed to pass through the airport,” Vakili said, adding that she finally managed to catch a flight out on her second attempt when her 16-year-old nephew accompanied her.
The requirement for a ‘late sharati’ — a carry-over from the first period of Taliban rule (1996-2001) — is just one of the many restrictions placed on women in Afghanistan since the Islamist group returned to power in August 2021.
Women are not allowed to study above the sixth grade, and have been barred from taking up jobs. The hijab is mandatory, and taxi drivers have been directed to refuse the fares of women who don’t follow the rule.
When it assumed power, the Taliban promised to do better by women in this stint, and the restrictions have drawn international condemnation. However, the Taliban have dug their heels in.
On Thursday, Taliban leader Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada was quoted as saying by ToloNews that they were “so independent today that there are no obstacles on the path to implement the real orders of Islam”. “We are not under pressure from any world power to compromise Islam or not ensure real Islam,” he added.
As the shadow of suppression continues to darken, a few people in the grassroots are doing their bit to ensure the country’s girls continue to have some access to education. This is done through private classes, including digital lessons — all conducted under the continued fear of a Taliban crackdown.
Being a single mom in Kabul
The ‘late sharati’ mandate creates a especially tough situation for women with no men in their lives, like Shakiba (32), a divorced single mother who lives in Kabul with her teenage daughter.
“I can’t go outside because I don’t have a man at home,” said Shakiba, before discussing the other ways her life has been affected under Taliban rule.
Her daughter Mahtab finished her sixth grade last year — and is now forced to stay at home. Speaking to ThePrint, Mahtab said she is doing all she can to ensure she doesn’t forget her lessons — she practises the lessons and reads her school books.
“I wish to become a journalist, so that I can serve the women of Afghanistan,” she said, acknowledging nevertheless that her goal now seems very distant.
Added Shakiba: “It’s very annoying for me that my daughter can’t study and I can’t work outside the house. Since the Taliban came to power, we have been sitting at home, we are not allowed to go out, we are not allowed to study, we cannot use mobile phones outside, we do not have the right to work and we are deprived of all our rights.”
Maryam, another Kabul resident with a young child, faces the same problem since her husband — “whose life was in danger” — fled Afghanistan after the Taliban returned.
“Now I am living alone with my son,” she said. “I feel afraid. I think the best and most suitable place for me is home, and I think that whenever I leave the house and go outside without a man, I will face an unpleasant reaction from the the Taliban and maybe they will harass me and ask why I came outside the house… without a ‘late sharati’.”
In its first iteration under the previous Taliban rule, ‘late sharati’ involved a blanket ban on women travelling without men — at the time, women were not even allowed to travel within a city or take a taxi without a male companion.
Now, they can, but if they follow certain rules, including proper headgear.
In December 2021, Taliban’s Ministry of Vice and Virtue issued an order warning taxi drivers against picking up women who weren’t dressed in line with the code, and if they wished to travel more than 75 km without a male companion.
Arifa, 20, who used to study at a private university in Kabul, said “girls and women are deprived of their basic rights under the Taliban”.
“Over time, these bans have created psychological pressure on girls… And this is really terrible for us,” she added.
Another woman, who didn’t wish to be named, said she was forced to quit her job because of the Taliban’s restrictions.
“I am like a prisoner at home,” she said, adding that economic and spiritual problems are not the only challenges faced by women.
Zahra, 28, spoke fondly of Kabul as it was in the days before the Taliban. “Kabul had many cafes where girls and young people laughed and talked carelessly. Libraries were established and various cultural programmes were held,” she said. “Today, in the streets of Kabul, even hair salons that had pictures of women behind their gates had to paint them white so that the Taliban would not cause problems, and cafes were closed.”
According to these women, this state intends the complete removal of women from society.
When individual and intellectual freedoms are denied or limited, Zahra said, the motivation for creativity in thought dies, and despair and hopelessness make you think that everything is over.
Some hope?
Amid this despair, however, there is a sliver of hope.
A group of female activists has, for example, created digital schools for girls, where they are taught for free. Classes are also held in homes, hidden from the eyes of the Taliban, which is why no one wants to talk about them.
A women associated with this initiative said they were worried the Taliban would shut down these classes.
UNESCO has said it is trying to create alternative ways for the education of girls left out of schools, and one of these is distance education through radio and television channels.
Women’s rights activists, however, emphasise that women’s education is unlikely to get back on track even if they are allowed back in schools and universities. It is not possible, they said, for every teenage girl and woman to have a ‘late sharati’.
Fatima Frutan is an Afghan woman journalist in exile
(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)
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