Afghanistan COI Repository

ICRC, Afghanistan: “My children are collecting waste to feed themselves”, 1 November 2022

“Widows and orphaned children are among the worst affected and too often unable to eat even one proper meal a day.”

 

International Rescue Committee (IRC), The all-female mobile health team working against the odds in Afghanistan, 19 August 2022

“Despite their critical work, these humanitarians — like many women in Afghanistan — must have a male chaperone accompany them nearly everywhere they go. This can prevent them from doing their work even in life- and-death emergencies, such as the earthquake that struck Afghanistan on June 22nd and killed 1,000 people.”

 

The Guardian, ‘I daren’t go far’ Taliban rules trap women with no male guardian, 15 August 2022

“Those without a male relative to act as a mahram are in legal limbo and unable to travel long distances

Hasina* cannot send her two daughters to school, because they are teenagers and high school is banned for girls in Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.

But she cannot take them out of the country to finish their education because she is a divorced single mother, and women are barred from long-distance travel without a male “guardian” to escort them.

Wazhma* lies awake worrying what she will do if her sick, elderly mother needs emergency medical help at night. Her father is dead, she is unmarried and her teenage sister is disabled.

She is terrified that as women out alone at night, even on their way to a hospital, they would be stopped and harassed by the Taliban.

Most Afghan women have had to learn to endure new restrictions and controls over the last year, but there is one group whose lives have been particularly curtailed.

Women who live in households without a close male relative, whether through tragedy, circumstance or choice, now exist in a legal limbo, because they do not have a close male relative to act as a mahram, or “guardian”.

In the Taliban’s extremist reimagining of Afghanistan, women are not fully autonomous citizens of their own country. Instead a man is deemed responsible for their presence in public, including how they dress and where they travel.

Officially, any woman travelling more than 75km (46 miles) or leaving the country needs a mahram. If a woman is

found to have broken the Taliban’s dress codes, their male relatives face punishment.

The rules have been enforced sporadically, with some officials turning a blind eye to solo travel. Raihana* was barred from boarding a plane earlier this year for a work trip but says women have since been allowed back in the air alone.

“It was in March, they had just circulated the new notice that no woman can travel to another city without a mahram. I wasn’t allowed to board the plane, and had to wait in the airport for two to three hours, with 20 or 30 other women,” she said. “This went on for a few weeks then they abolished [the rule]. Now we can travel again.” But many others across Afghanistan have reported restrictions on women’s movements that go far beyond the official regulations. They told the Guardian that Taliban fighters have barred them from even short journeys, including commuting to work, sometimes using indirect tactics such as threatening drivers who take solo female passengers.

Health workers said they had personal experience of women being barred from accessing medical help without a mahram in at least two districts, one in central Afghanistan’s Bamiyan province and one in southern Helmand. […]

The mahram rule has also contributed to an economic catastrophe for families without adult men, amid a broader economic collapse. The regulations make it harder or more frightening for women to find jobs, or commute to work.”

Amnesty International (Afghanistan), Afghanistan: Death in slow motion: Women and girls under Taliban rule, 27 July 2022

"In December 2021, the Ministry of Vice and Virtue issued guidance indicating that women must be accompanied by a mahram, or male chaperone, for journeys longer than 72km. Taliban official Zabiullah Mujahid said in a

previous interview that the Taliban’s mahram requirements would not apply for daily activities such as traveling to work or school. However, this statement was undermined by a decree issued on 7 May 2022 by the Ministry of

homes unless necessary. The Taliban have also instructed airlines to prevent women from flying domestically and

internationally without a mahram and they have ordered driving instructors in Herat to cease giving driving lessons and licenses to women."

"Taliban restrictions on movement also have the potential to pressure women and girls to enter into marriage, whether by their own choice or as a result of pressure or coercion from their family members. One

woman who was arbitrarily arrested for being in public with a man who was not her mahram, explained: “If you want to go outside, you have to have a father, brother or husband with you… A father can’t always go out with the daughter, a brother might be busy... This will pressure girls and women to marry, just so that they always have a mahram.”"

 

BBC News, Taliban break up rare protest by Afghan women in Kabul, 14 August 2022

“About 40 women marched through the Afghan capital demanding rights, before the Taliban broke it up by firing

into the air. The fighters seized their mobile phones, stopping one of the first women's protests in months. … In the year since the Taliban returned to power, they have issued various orders restricting the freedom of women - barring them from most government jobs, secondary education and from travelling more than 45 miles (70km) without a male guardian. In May, the militants decreed that Afghan women will have to wear the Islamic face veil for the first time in decades. If a woman refuses to comply, her male guardians could be sent to jail for three days - although this is not always enforced. There have been minor sporadic protests over the past year, but any form of dissent is being crushed. … Girls have been banned from receiving secondary education, the ministry for women's affairs has been disbanded, and in many cases women have not been allowed to work.”

 

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Gandhara, Taliban's New Chaperone Rule Deprives Afghan Women of Foreign Scholarships, 8 July 2022

"But Afghan women are now being deprived of studying abroad because the Taliban is not allowing women to travel outside Afghanistan without a male chaperone.

The restriction follows a Taliban ban on education for teenage girls, which has kept millions of secondary-school students from the classroom since the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August.

"I had a hellish experience because of this restriction," says Hadia Tuba, who recently went to Pakistan to begin her university education on a scholarship from Islamabad.

The young Kabul resident says the day she crossed the Torkham border crossing connecting eastern Afghanistan to northwestern Pakistan was the hardest in her life.

"The Taliban stopped me at the border and questioned me for the entire day," she told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi. "Eventually, I was let go after a stern warning [that I should never travel alone]."

Tuba says the intimidation she felt was difficult to describe.

"I will never forget what happened, but I don't like to talk about it," she said. The restriction has forced entire Afghan families to leave the country.

Sonia Ahmadi was forced to bring her parents and siblings with her when she went to the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad to attend Ferdowsi University.

 

"It is a major problem that no woman is allowed to travel alone, whether by road or by air," she told Radio Azadi. "The gender discrimination against women is pushing Afghanistan backward.""

 

ToloNews, Widows in Uruzgan Face Dire Economic Situation, 7 July 2022

"Some widows who lost their husbands over the past several years of conflict in the southern province of Uruzgan say they are facing a dire economic condition.

They said they the breadwinners of their families and are must beg for money on the streets of the provincial capital city of Tarn Kot.

“My children are sick. I don’t have money to buy them medicine and there is no breadwinner,” said Haseena, a

widow.

Vice and Virtue that required women to cover their faces in public and stipulated that they should not leave their

 

“I am from Kandahar and came here. I have three children and I should feed them,” said Asma, a widow. These widows said that their children are deprived of education due to poverty. They called on the relevant organizations to provide them with work opportunity.

“I hope to find work, I will be happy. My children are thirsty and starving,” said Sador Gul, a widow. “They may help us by providing a sewing factory or a shop,” said Hameeda, a widow."

[…]

"With the fall of the former government and freezing of Afghan assets by the US, the country’s already feeble

economy became severely worse."

 

Humanitarian Response, Engaging Marginalised Women in Afghanistan in Decision Making and Accountability, 24 June 2022

"Participants in many workshops said that they or their households missed receiving assistance or getting on eligibility lists for assistance because aid organisations share information about times and locations of those activities through male shura members and men who head households. This communication pathway excludes many of their households from getting information and assistance."

 

The Norwegian Country of Origin Information Centre Land info, Country info response Afghanistan: the situation for Afghan women after Taliban takeover, 22 June 2022

"Women cannot travel alone. Already in December 2021 came the directive that women who travel longer than 72km. must be accompanied by a male family member (BBC News 2021). From different parts of the country it is reported that women have been denied health care because they did not has male companion (mahram). Women who visit health centers with the sick children, are rejected because they come unaccompanied (Nader & Amini 2022). Another measure that restricts women's freedom of movement is that they no longer receive it driver's license (Free Press Journal 2022). Furthermore, the Taliban has banned that women can fly without a male companion. The order for a companion applies to both domestic and international flights. The airlines were informed of the restrictions in a letter from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Reuters 2022)."

 

Alive, Kandahari Women: No to Forced Hijab, 10 June 2022

"The Taliban’s latest decree ordered women to cover their faces in public, and directed taxis, rickshaw drivers and buses to avoid picking up women who are not accompanied by a male guardian.

These decrees by the Taliban further restrict women, especially those without any male guardians and who are the breadwinners of their families, from taking care of their families."

 

“When I try to explain I don’t have one, they won’t listen. It doesn’t matter that I am a respected professor; they show no dignity and order the taxi drivers to abandon me on the roads,” she said.

US DOS, 2021 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Afghanistan, 12 April 2022

“Societal pressures and the Taliban practice of arranging marriages for widows forced women into unwanted marriages. HRW conducted telephone interviews with residents in Herat in September and found that women in Taliban-controlled areas increasingly felt pressured to marry for their own safety in view of restrictions upon their movements and activities imposed by the Taliban.

On August 13, the Taliban entered Herat, seizing government offices and the police station. A Taliban fighter reportedly threatened to kill a widowed mother of five if she did not marry him, and she was forced to do so in September with the consent of a mullah. She has said that her life is a nightmare and “it is like he is raping me every night.”

On December 3, Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhunzada announced a public decree banning the forced marriage of women. The decree set out the rules governing marriage and property for women, stating that women should not be forced into marriage and widows should have a share in their late husband’s property. The decree mandated that courts should consider these rules when making decisions, and religious affairs and information

ministries should promote these rights.”

DW, Afghanistan: Taliban restrict women’s rights as isolation looms, 30 March 2022

“New, stricter, rules are announced almost every day. For example, since Sunday, women are only allowed to board an airplane in the company of a man.

According to a letter sent by the Taliban to the airlines operating in Afghanistan, this applies to both domestic and international flights. However, the Associated Press reported Tuesday that woman have been traveling alone from Kabul airport, a sign that some of the Taliban's orders are being ignored.”

 

AlJazeera, Taliban bans forced marriage of women in Afghanistan, 3 December 2021

“The Taliban has issued a decree barring forced marriage in Afghanistan, saying women should not be considered “property” and must consent to marriage, but questions remain about whether the group that returned to power in mid-August would extend women’s rights around work and education.

The decree was announced on Friday by the reclusive Taliban chief, Hibatullah Akhunzada – who is believed to be in the southern city of Kandahar. “Both (women and men) should be equal,” said the decree, adding that “no one can force women to marry by coercion or pressure”.

The decree did not mention a minimum age for marriage, which previously was set at 16 years old.

The group also said a widow will now be allowed to re-marry 17 weeks after her husband’s death, choosing her new husband freely.

Widows

Longstanding tribal traditions have held it customary for a widow to marry one of her husband’s brothers or

relatives in the event of his death.

[...] The development was hailed as a significant step forward by two leading Afghan women, but questions

remained about whether the group would extend women’s rights around work and education.

[...] Roya Rahmani, the former ambassador for Afghanistan to the United States, echoed her optimism and added that it was likely partly an attempt to smooth over international fears regarding the group’s track record on women’s rights as the Taliban administration seeks to get funding released.

“An amazing thing if it does get implemented,” Rahmani told the Reuters Next panel, adding details such as who would ensure that girls’ consent was not coerced by family members would be key.

“It’s a very smart move on the part of Taliban at this point because one of the (pieces of) news that is attracting the West’s attention is the fact little girls are being sold as property to others in order to feed the rest of the family,”