Afghan women take to the streets to defy Taliban

Many are stepping out of their homes as an act of rebellion

Afghan women, holding placards, gather to demand the protection of women's rights in front of the Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan.

A person holds the flag of Afghanistan during a protest against support for the Taliban, in Berlin, Germany.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks at his first news conference in Kabul.

Taliban fighters stand guard outside the Green Zone where most of the embassies are situated.

Afghan security forces patrol on humvee vehicle along a road in Bazarak town of Panjshir province.

Schoolgirls sit in a schoolyard in Herat.

Afghans wait outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country.

A Taliban fighter raises their flag on a vehicle as they patrol in Kandahar.

French citizens and their Afghan colleagues wait to board a French military transport plane at the airport in Kabul after the Taliban's stunning military takeover of the Afghanistan.

French soldiers at the airport in Kabul as they arrive to help French citizens and their Afghan colleagues to flee after the Taliban takeover.

A US Air Force C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraft filled with about 640 Afghans fleeing to Qatar from Kabul, Afghanistan.

Crowds on the tarmac of Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan. Several people were reportedly killed at the airport on August 16 as Afghans tried to hang on to a moving US military plane leaving the airport.

A satellite photo shows swarms of people on the tarmac at Kabul International Airport, also known as Hamid Karzai International Airport. Afghans rushed on to the tarmac of the capital's airport on Monday as thousands tried to flee the country after the Taliban seized power with stunning speed.

A traffic jam outside Kabul International Airport, Afghanistan after Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar declared victory and an end to the decades-long war in the country. President Ashraf Ghani fled and conceded that the insurgents had won the 20-year war.

Qari Muhammad Hanif, centre, director of the Taliban's cultural and Information department, talks to journalists in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

Humvee vehicles from the Afghan Security Forces in Panjshir province, Afghanistan.

Thousands of Afghans rushed to Hamid Karzai International Airport in an attempt to flee the Afghan capital, Kabul.

Afghans on the tarmac at Kabul airport in Kabul after a swift end to the 20-year war in the country. Thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's rule.

A US soldier keeps close watch on Afghan passengers at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul. Thousands of people packed the airport trying to flee Taliban rule.

Passengers sit inside a plane as they wait to leave the runway of Kabul after the stunningly swift end of Afghanistan’s 20-year war.

People climb on top of a plane in Kabul.

People try to enter Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

People cross the boundary wall of Hamid Karzai International Airport to flee the country after rumours that foreign countries were removing people even without visas.

Taliban fighters stand guard along a roadside near Zanbaq Square in Kabul.

A Taliban fighter sits on his motorcycle by a road in Shahr-e Naw, Kabul.

Talibs patrol the streets of Kabul as the militants take control of Afghanistan. after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Afghans gather on the asphalt at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul.

Afghans gather by the runway in Kabul as US soldiers stand guard.

Taliban fighters on a police vehicle outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Baradar Akhund, a senior official of the Taliban, with a group of men, makes a video statement.

Taliban fighters take control of the presidential palace in Kabul, after Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

Passengers from Kabul arrive at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, India.

Families on a motorway trying to flee Kabul.

Afghan security forces on patrol in Kabul.

People line up outside Azizi Bank to withdraw cash during a run on deposits.

Taliban fighters use a captured Afghan security forces vehicle at a checkpoint in Herat.

Ahmadullah Muttaqi, centre left, the Taliban's director for information and culture, addresses journalists.

Police officers conduct their duties after the Taliban took control of Kandahar.

People prepare to cross into Afghanistan, at Pakistan's Chaman border. Pakistani authorities reopened the border with Afghanistan on August 13 after it had been closed for several days.

Afghans wait in long lines for hours to get visas at the Iranian embassy, in Kabul.

Taliban fighters patrol after taking control of Jalalabad.

Smoke rises near the US embassy in Kabul. Taliban fighters reached the outskirts of the Afghan capital on Sunday.

Anti-missile decoy flares are used by US Black Hawk military helicopters, while a surveillance blimp flies over Kabul.

An Afghan soldier keeps watch on a street in Kabul.

Taliban fighters and local people gather in Jalalabad province, east of Kabul.

Taliban fighters sit on an Afghan Army Humvee in Jalalabad province.

Taliban fighters travel along a street in Jalalabad province.

A US Chinook military helicopter flies over the US embassy in Kabul.

Heavily armed Taliban fighters gather in eastern Laghman province.

Militants wave a Taliban flag from the back of a pickup truck in Jalalabad.

Taliban fighters drive through the streets of Laghman province.

People head to the departures area of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul as the Taliban approach the city.

A man sells Taliban flags in western province Herat.

Taliban fighters travel in an Afghan Army vehicle in Herat.

Taliban forces patrol a street in Herat.

Taliban militants raise their flag as they gather a day after taking control of key southern city Kandahar.

Members of the Afghan security forces stand guard along the roadside in Panjshir province.

Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani and acting defence minister Bismillah Khan Mohammadi visit a military site in Kabul.

Internally displaced families from northern provinces take shelter in a public park in Kabul.

Families that fled their homes because of fighting between the Taliban and Afghan security forces take shelter in a public park in Kabul.

Many of those seeking safety in Kabul have been sleeping on the streets.

Thousands of those internally displaced have been arriving in Kabul.

Afghans have been waiting for hours in long queues outside the passport office in Kabul, with many people desperate to leave the country.

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It has taken only three days to completely transform the lives of women in Kabul.

The mere act of stepping out of their homes has become an almost insurmountable challenge, they told The National.

Since the Taliban captured the Afghan capital on Sunday, many women in the country have retreated indoors, fearing the wrath of the fundamentalist group.

But many defiant women are stepping out of their homes as an act of rebellion.

“We cannot let them imprison us again, we have to make a stand now,” said Maryam, a Kabul resident aged 24. Her name has been changed to protect her identity.

The Taliban, who control the majority of Afghanistan, are known to repress women’s freedoms. During their regime in the 1990s and in areas they continued to control after 2001, they imposed strict rules limiting women’s presence in public spaces.

Women were not allowed to go to school or work. They were forbidden to leave homes without a male guardian and, even when they did go out, had to dress in a full hijab.

However, after the Taliban’s fall in 2001 at the hands of a US-led coalition, Afghan women were empowered and built a strong presence in social and political spheres.

“It has been like hell for me. I can’t get over the shock," Maryam, a social activist and a vocal critic of the militant group, said of its return to power.

“I have worked in provinces where the Taliban had control in the past and had experienced to some degree how they treat women,” she said.

She added that she was recently in one of the northern provinces that fell to the Taliban last month.

“I left when things got worse and came to Kabul. I did not expect that this would happen in Kabul,” she said.

But Maryam and her colleagues are determined not to allow the Taliban to lock them up as they did before. In small groups on social media platforms, the women gather to discuss the crisis.

They exchange notes on conditions in various parts of the city, and then agree on a plan to step outside. “Girls, let's come out and walk the street,” Maryam tells the others.

“We should not give up. Let us see who tries to stop us. How many women will they kill?” she says.

Others share advice on how to be safe when out and about. “Cover yourself, and record everything when you are outside,” they say. “If we stand together they have to accept us.”

But with the extremist group's return to power, many Afghan women fear they will be targeted for their mere identity, not just by the Taliban but also by the more conservative elements in society.

“I have heard from friends that their fathers and brothers are restricting their movement, some out of concern for their safety, but many are using this opportunity to suppress the women,” Maryam told The National.

The end of 'vibrant Kabul'

Maryam did step out of her house on Tuesday after days of fear and anxiety. Outside, she saw a very different Kabul than the one she had last seen when she rushed home on Saturday.

“The streets were empty and many shops, particularly cafes and restaurants, were still shut. There were Taliban fighters everywhere,” she recalled. There were a few women like her without a male escort but in the traditional Afghan burqa on the streets, she said.

“It was not the vibrant Kabul we know.”

In the Taliban's first press conference on Tuesday, spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told the media that they were committed to providing women with their rights, based on Islam.

“Women can work in the health sector and other sectors where they are needed,” he said.

However, in many provinces there have been reports that the Taliban have already forbidden women from leaving their homes. Women in Herat reported being sent back from their workplaces, told their services were no longer needed.

In Kabul, Maryam was able to walk the street for only 15 to 20 minutes. “I walked past the Taliban, head held high. They didn’t do anything but I know it is because right now they know all eyes are on them so they won’t beat women on the street right now to save their image in the international media,” she said.

“But there is no guarantee that they will give us our rights in the future. If anything, once the lens moves away from Kabul, they will target us."

But many are not giving up without a fight, in some cases, literally.

Reports from Nangarhar province on Tuesday claimed that an Afghan woman in Jalalabad city had been killed by Taliban gunmen following an argument.

One local journalist in Jalalabad told The National on condition of anonymity that when they enquired about the killing, they were told by the Taliban fighters that she was killed accidentally.

“They said that this girl was kidnapped by thieves, and was escaping her captors, but the Taliban mistook her as a hostile woman and shot her,” they said.

However, the source added that local witnesses gave a different account.

“The woman was travelling in an auto rickshaw and got into an argument with a Taliban fighter, I saw it with my own eyes, and he shot her,” they told the journalist. The source added that the Taliban would not allow any local people to remove her body from the area.

“I don’t know what they fought about or why they killed her, but all she did was raise her voice,” they said.

Maryam, who is encouraging women to get out, is cautious about her own safety. “I talk to my friends and we are terrified. We are all still in shock. An evil has taken over our city and we will not even be recognised as human,” she said.