"The Taliban turned religion into a tool of power and took Afghan women hostage to their ambition."

Sent to Zan TV

Written by Sanam Kabiri, Women’s Rights Activist

August 15 was not only the day our country surrendered to a terrorist group and our system collapsed, it was also the dark day when the dreams of millions of girls and women in Afghanistan were destroyed. It was the day the system fell, oppression and violence spread everywhere, and our country turned into a house of horror. Those whose hands were stained with the blood of thousands of innocents and who had no trace of humanity came to power.

Everywhere I looked, I saw warlords with terrifying faces and clothes, exactly as my grandmother used to describe in stories when I was a child. But this time, I was witnessing that nightmare with my own eyes. August 15 was the repetition of the same black nightmare that took away all my childhood dreams. Just as in the past, when they came to power, they closed the school doors to us and turned schools into war and military shelters, this time too, after twenty-five years, the same nightmare returned.

At the very moment my daughter had reached the same age I was in those days, schools and universities were shut down; stoning, executions, and public trials restarted. On Fridays after prayers, executions and public lashings are repeated. Twenty years of women’s achievements were erased. Women were excluded from society and confined to their homes. But these same educated Afghan women, from across the country, came to the streets, protested, and cried out for freedom.

However, this terrorist group, through issuing successive decrees and restrictions, increased the pressure on women. They removed women from social and political activities to the extent that they no longer had room to breathe even inside their own homes. Working women were dismissed from their jobs, and unprecedented economic poverty gripped the country; a poverty that continues to this day.

This terrorist group turned religion into a tool for the survival of its political power and took Afghan women hostage to its own goals. They distorted all divine and religious rulings to their own benefit; except for rape, murder, sodomy, forced marriage, stoning, execution, and child marriage, they permitted everything for their members.

They took away the personal freedoms of our youth and teenagers. They imprisoned, tortured, and exiled the women who defended the rights of their people.

Taliban:

Took my rights

Took my country

Took my childhood dreams

Took my language

And took my identity!

The brave women of Afghanistan, over these past four years, with all the sacrifices they have made, have never stopped fighting. They have stood for their rights, justice, and human dignity.

An hiding man named “Mullah Hibatullah,” whose physical presence is still uncertain, issues orders every day, and his subordinates enforce these orders, clear violations of human rights, upon the people.

Until a popular and inclusive government is established in Afghanistan, the women of this land will continue their struggle. No matter to which corner of the world they are exiled, they will cry out the voices of the women taken hostage.