Afghan Women Cry For Help
There has been continued disappearance of people connected with the recent women’s rights protests in Afghanistan. Many Afghan women have been taken from their homes after speaking out. Women say they are stopped, lashed with whips, and beaten with batons that emit electric shocks. “Why isn’t anyone saying anything? Why isn’t anyone doing anything?” they cry.
Reports emerging from Afghanistan reveal that many medical staff have fled the country, and most clinics have closed. A woman gynecologist says that she travels to 12 districts providing front-line care to women and children. Afghanistan has one of the worst maternal and infant mortality rates in the world. An Afghan female activist named Mursal Ayar has been forcibly taken from her home, the latest in a string of alleged arrests by the Taliban. According to a BBC report, Ayar is the sixth woman to have been taken by the Taliban in the past weeks.
In mid-January, some women who had participated in peaceful protests for work, study and political rights had been taken away by the Taliban. These include Parwana Ibrahim, Tamana Paryani and Paryani’s three sisters Zarmina, Shafiqa and Karima. In the days that followed, there was no information about their location and well-being. Some days later, Tamana Paryani posted a video on social media, which showed armed men entering her apartment block. She cried for help in the video.
“Help, the Taliban have come to my house,” she said before the video ended. The Taliban accused her of making fake films in order to seek asylum abroad. The UN stated that the reports of missing women highlighted “a pattern of arbitrary arrests and detentions”, as well as torture and mistreatment of civil rights activists, journalists and former government officials in Afghanistan. Globally, Afghanistan is the only country where the government officially restricts education to women. Afghanistan has been seeking legitimacy internationally, but its mistreatment of women has been severely criticized. As a result, international sanctions against the Taliban have not been lifted.
