June has become for me a month full of fear
KabulJune has become a month full of fear for me. Not an abstract fear, but a physical fear: the fear of going out on the street. Every day I ask myself: will I return home safe and sound today?
The Taliban Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice began arresting women in the city of Herat, in northwestern Afghanistan, in the first week of June. Videos and photos circulated on social media showing Taliban dragging women from markets and streets and putting them into their vehicles. They gave no clear explanation, only the sudden presence of dozens of armed men stopping women who were simply going about their daily lives.
Herat, Kabul, and Mazar-e Sharif, the three major Afghan cities that previously seemed relatively safer for educated and employed women compared to other provinces, have now become places where being a woman and being on the street means living in fear. I had already witnessed the detention of women, but this time it was different: they are more direct, more forceful.
In Herat, the detentions unleashed the anger of the people, who took to the streets to protest. They shouted “No to the detention of women”. But the response was neither dialogue nor explanations: it was more violence. The Taliban repressed the protesters with beatings and gunfire. Seeing those images online has completely shaken me. The UN mission in Afghanistan condemned the detentions and repression in a statement.
Media outlets outside of Afghanistan did report on the protests, but inside the country there was absolute silence. The Taliban banned Afghan journalists from Herat from saying anything about it. From Kabul, we could only follow events through social media and tried to reconstruct what was happening by interviewing people by phone. What they described to us was a situation even worse than what was seen on social media. I felt anger at my own inability to report on what was really happening. Anger at being forced to be silent despite everything that is happening.
Finally, the Taliban governor of Herat appeared before the media and denied everything. He claimed that the images of the protests and repression had been created with artificial intelligence. Denial is another form of violence when the reality is evident to everyone.
Calls to protest were maintained in Herat and also spread to Kabul. In the Afghan capital, however, people chose not to raise their voices, while the Taliban deployed throughout the city with American-made military vehicles they confiscated from the Afghan army when they came to power in 2021. In Herat, on the other hand, people continued to protest in the streets and repression also continued.
Even more restrictions
Shortly after, the Taliban also began arresting women in Kabul and Mazar-e-Sharif, which made families even more restrictive with their daughters. I myself suffer from this in my own home. Before going out onto the street, I have to stand in front of my father so he can check if my clothes meet the Taliban's demands: a loose black tunic, a mask that covers my face, and eyes that seek his approval. I do this not only to comply with the Taliban's rules, but also to put him at ease.
Kabul has gradually changed. Now there are almost no women in public spaces. On my way to work, I look at the streets from the car and often see no women. A few days ago, when I was returning home, a colleague from work told me she was tired of life and of being a woman, and showed me a video in which a black SUV without a license plate, a vehicle often linked to the Taliban, was seen running over four girls in a residential area of Kabul. The security camera images showed the vehicle deliberately heading towards the girls walking on the street until it hit them, and then speeding away. The young women were left lying on the ground. They were dressed according to the codes established by the Taliban, they did not attract attention. It could have been any of us.
After that incident, women are even more afraid. We move cautiously through the streets. It's no longer just about clothes, but also about our own presence. The simple fact of being a woman and being in a public space already poses a risk.
While the women of Afghanistan have to face detentions and restrictions, the Taliban are received in Brussels to meet with representatives of the European Commission. For me, this is a denial of our reality in Afghanistan. As if everything that happens in Kabul, Herat and Mazar-e Sharif were invisible in global decision-making spaces.
We feel forgotten
During the days when we are trying to find out if we, women, can leave home safely, the world dialogues with those who impose all these restrictions on us. It is an ethical gap between what happens on the ground and what is considered acceptable in international politics.
What worries me most is not just these meetings, but also the message this sends to Afghan women who live this reality daily. While we run the risk of being detained and excluded from education, and distanced from public life, the fact that the Taliban are received in international forums makes many of us feel forgotten. We have a painful sense of abandonment and betrayal. Our voice is not heard, but that of the Taliban, yes.
It is no longer a political issue, but a personal one. We do not want the world to talk about us while ignoring us. We want to be seen, heard, and for our suffering to be taken seriously. And above all, that our executioners are not further empowered.