Foreign Correspondent – The War on Afghan Women
Some two decades ago, it would have been unthinkable; the United States making a peace deal with its arch enemy in Afghanistan. But after years of war, thousands of American lives lost and a presidential election on the horizon, the US government and the Taliban are making a ‘peace deal’.
The pact will pave the way for the withdrawal of American troops and open the door to the Taliban’s return to power.
But where does this leave one of the groups who suffered deeply under the Taliban’s brutal rule, Afghan women?
When the Taliban were in power, they denied Afghan women the most basic human rights: the right to go out alone, the right to go to school and work, even the right to show their face in public. If they broke these rules, they were flogged and sometimes executed.
Many Afghan women now fear that when the US leaves, the Taliban could join the government and re-impose its tyrannical form of Islam on the people.
Reporter Karishma Vyas goes to Afghanistan to investigate how Afghan women view the possible return of the Taliban.
“As an Afghan, I’m shocked. The Americans introduced democracy, human rights, women’s rights to us, and encouraged us to defend them” says Laila Haidari, who works in the streets of Kabul helping drug addicts. “But they’re telling us that now the Taliban is legitimate? How has the Taliban changed?”
Vyas meets some extraordinary women doing extraordinary work: a defence lawyer who represents women, a social worker and a young girl who fears the Taliban will kill her for leaving her violent marriage. She hears how hard the women of Afghanistan have fought to win back some freedoms, and how afraid they are of losing them again.
“We’ve gambled with our lives, minute by minute. Why? Because we want women to have a place in society”, say Haidari.
While the Taliban assures western leaders they’ve changed, this story exposes a different reality. We show mobile phone pictures of women being publicly lashed for singing and dancing and hear of others being beaten or gunned down over accusations of adultery.
As well as the possible return of the Taliban, there’s another enemy on Afghanistan’s horizon: COVID-19. There’s a fear that the tens of hundreds of migrant Afghani workers returning home from Iran will spread the virus throughout the country. It may delay the US-Taliban peace process, but it could be devastating for ordinary Afghanis.
The War on Afghan Women on Foreign Correspondent, Tuesday 14 April at 8pm on ABC + iview
