An Intimate Look into the Battle for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan

News
- September 11, 2024

by Blind Magazine

Over the course of the last six months, Kiana Hayeri and Mélissa Cornet traveled to seven provinces in Afghanistan to investigate the conditions imposed on women and girls by the Taliban, which, according to Amnesty International’s research, could constitute a possible crime against humanity of gender-based persecution. They met with more than 100 women and girls, barred from going to school, forced to stay at home, women journalists and activists continuing to fight for their rights, mothers watching with horror as history repeats itself for their daughters, as well as LGBTQI+ individuals.

Kiana Hayeri and Melissa Cornet documented how the Taliban, allowed by a deeply patriarchal society, have systematically erased women from society, taking away their most basic rights: to go to school, to university, to work, to travel, to dress as they wish, to go to public baths, to parks, or even to the beauty salon. In late August 2024, the Taliban regime further tightened its control by enacting a new law requiring women to fully cover their faces with a mask and prohibiting them from having their voices heard in public, including singing, reciting, or reading aloud.

Gardi, Ghos district, Nangarhar, Afghanistan, February 13, 2024. In the absence of school buildings in Gardi Ghos District, classes are set up for students, between two main roads under the sun and on dirt ground. While boys can complete their education all the way to grade 12, classes were held for girls only until grade 6. As of today, girls are only allowed to study until grade 6, and are barred from both high schools and universities. In some districts, locally decided by authorities, girls are barred from school above grade 3. However underground schools set up at homes, mosques or alternative spaces continue educating girls, at a high risk. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

The starkest change that Kiana Hayeri and Mélissa Cornet noted since August 2021 was the general loss of hope among women that things might improve for them, as dreams of having an education and becoming members of society were shattered before them, becoming the primary victims of recurring economic and food crises, and a health system that has all but collapsed. In the words of one women’s rights activist, who has since left the country, seeing no future for herself in Afghanistan: “We have forgotten joy, we don’t know from where any can be found. I’ve lost all motivation. I cry alone, hidden. It’s as if someone has locked me in a room and won’t let me outside. Even food has no taste.”

Last week and following the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, another activist and athlete, Afghan taekwondoist Marzieh Hamidi made headlines in the press after receiving death threats for denouncing the Taliban’s obscurantism. A refugee in France for three years and living under police protection, she filed a complaint on for repeated rape and death threats, cyber-stalking and malicious phone calls. “My life is in danger, I can’t stay at home”, she said in several interviews with French media. Her phone number has found its way into the hands of several people harassing her. She has received “3,000 calls” from people telling her: “We’re going to kill you, we’re going to rape you, you can’t represent Afghan women”. The calls came from Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, France, Germany, and many European countries. “How many women have to be killed by the Taliban for the world to recognize gender apartheid as a crime?,” she added.

Yamit District, Badakhshan, Afghanistan, May 10, 2024. Kheshroo's daughter and her cousin, both grade 11 students who were put out of school, committed suicide a year before by throwing themselves in the water. The family plays in puddles of water, among troops of yaks, horses and goats, in front of the Wakhan mountains, Wakhan, a region that had never been controlled by the Taliban before 2021. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac — Yamit District, Badakhshan, Afghanistan, May 10, 2024. Kheshroo’s daughter and her cousin, both grade 11 students who were put out of school, committed suicide a year before by throwing themselves in the water. The family plays in puddles of water, among troops of yaks, horses and goats, in front of the Wakhan mountains, Wakhan, a region that had never been controlled by the Taliban before 2021. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

For Blind, Kiana Hayeri and Melissa Cornet, the two laureates of the Carmignac Photojournalism Award, give a poignant account of the situation in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan today, how does the persecution of women and girls manifest itself?

By the erasure of women : over the past three years, they have gradually been removed from most aspects of life: barred from entering parks, public and governmental offices, public baths, gyms, forced to cover from head to toe, prevented from speaking in public…

What striking visions or scenes have you witnessed that best illustrate this phenomenon?

We met two sisters, Razia (17) and Zahra (14). Razia survived an ISIS suicide attack on her school, a short few months before Taliban came back into power. She walked away alive but severely wounded and unable to walk. While still bound to a wheelchair, Razia continued her studies and regained control of her legs. Even after the Taliban’s return, Razia continued her studies at an underground school and with every obstacle the new Islamic Emirates put in front of her, she refused to give in and quit her studies. On the other hand, her younger sister, Zahra (14) lost hope. Quit school and her studies on the first day school’s door were shut on the girls above sixth grade and stayed home. She’s barely left the house five times in the span of two years, including one time to commemorate the ISIS attack her older sister lived through. While Zahra and Razia were in conversation in front of us, the gap in their mental health and their motivation level was evident. “Razia was compelled to go and study but I lost my interest in studying. I thought it was useless to study in this situation.” Zahra told us while fidgeting with her fingers. This is not a dramatic scene yet it encompasses the future: the younger generation might not see the point in fighting through going to school, since they can’t graduate, can’t go to university, can’t work in most fields. The contrast between the two sisters stuck with us.

Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 17, 2024. A private institute in the West of Kabul, where girls follow the American curriculum in English, but cannot obtain any Afghan official education certificate, nor can they go to university in Afghanistan, closed for women. This is a rare instance where the school has managed to secure the local Taliban's approval to shut a blind eye on the school's operation with teenage girls. 700 female highschool students study at this institute everyday under strict security measurement while two armed security guards from the community watch the gate and girls enter and exit one by one, leaving their backpacks at the entrance. Despite suicide bombers' attacks that took place before the takeover, the institute remains full of girls, whose dreams are now to leave the country to continue their education abroad. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac — Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 17, 2024. A private institute in the West of Kabul, where girls follow the American curriculum in English, but cannot obtain any Afghan official education certificate, nor can they go to university in Afghanistan, closed for women. This is a rare instance where the school has managed to secure the local Taliban’s approval to shut a blind eye on the school’s operation with teenage girls. 700 female highschool students study at this institute everyday under strict security measurement while two armed security guards from the community watch the gate and girls enter and exit one by one, leaving their backpacks at the entrance. Despite suicide bombers’ attacks that took place before the takeover, the institute remains full of girls, whose dreams are now to leave the country to continue their education abroad. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 23, 2024. A group of teenage girls dance at a birthday party of their friend. Music and dancing have been forbidden by the Taliban but women continue to dance and celebrate in the privacy of their homes and behind closed doors. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

Jalal Abad, Nangarhar, Afghanistan, February 12, 2024. A family, recently deported out of Pakistan has temporarily settled in suburban neighbourhood of Jalal Abad in eastern Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans have been forced out of Pakistan following the ongoing crackdown on illegal foreigners, some of which after decades of living in Pakistan. Women and girls are the most affected by the consequences of forced displacement, with for example high rates of child marriage. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

You’ve met some of the women who suffer from this condition. Can you tell us about the experiences of some of them?

Every single woman we met is affected in one way or another by the Taliban rules. It is important to highlight that for some women, who previously lived under Taliban controlled areas, not much has changed since they officially came back to power but for most women, their lives have drastically changed. We met 14 year old Muska, who was sold into marriage by her parents in return for a well and solar panels. Like Tahmeena, a brilliant future doctor, now stuck at home and looking to leave the country to finish her studies. Like Soraya*, 28, arrested and beaten by the Taliban for her activism, and released to find her husband had a heart attack because of her arrest. Like Fatemah, 2 and a half years old, 5kg, admitted for the third time in a malnutrition ward because her family struggles to feed themselves. We met more than 100 women and girls, each affected in her own way by the Taliban restrictions and by the economic crises.

(*the person’s name was changed for security reasons)

How do they resist Taliban oppression?

Resistance is a relative term and it changes forms and shape according to their environment. In Afghanistan where women are stripped away from their rights and their space in the society on a daily basis, those who are carving out spaces for themselves to exist, are performing an act of resistance in a way. We met with young women who continue to show up to work (for those who can still work) despite the growing barriers against them, young women engaging in a snowball fight, teenagers gathering for an afternoon to celebrate a friend’s birthday with music and dancing in their sparkling dresses and we met female activists who continue to raise their voices and raise awareness online or underground, given the harshness of the repression against them. Their resistance is their refusal to give in to the Taliban’s attempts to deny their humanity and their existence.

Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 29, 2024. Female journalists working in the office of a women-focused media. Since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, the Afghan media landscape has been decimated. According to Reporters Without Borders, in the three months following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. Since then, more than two-thirds of the 12,000 journalists in the country in 2021 have left the profession. For women journalists, the situation is far worse: forced to cover their face, to travel with a chaperone, forbidden from interviewing officials, subject to harassment and threats, more than 80% of women journalists stopped working between August 2021 and August 2023, according to Amnesty International. Without women reporters, it is increasingly difficult to report on the situation of Afghan women, in a society where men are rarely allowed to interview women. Topics around women's rights are particularly sensitive, and the amount of pressure put on media outlets and journalists made Kaboul, Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 29, 2024. Female journalists working in the office of a women-focused media. Since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, the Afghan media landscape has been decimated. According to Reporters Without Borders, in the three months following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. Since then, more than two-thirds of the 12,000 journalists in the country in 2021 have left the profession. For women journalists, the situation is far worse: forced to cover their face, to travel with a chaperone, forbidden from interviewing officials, subject to harassment and threats, more than 80% of women journalists stopped working between August 2021 and August 2023, according to Amnesty International. Without women reporters, it is increasingly difficult to report on the situation of Afghan women, in a society where men are rarely allowed to interview women. Topics around women's rights are particularly sensitive, and the amount of pressure put on media outlets and journalists made self-censorship the new rule for reporting. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac — Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 29, 2024. Female journalists working in the office of a women-focused media. Since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, the Afghan media landscape has been decimated. According to Reporters Without Borders, in the three months following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. Since then, more than two-thirds of the 12,000 journalists in the country in 2021 have left the profession. For women journalists, the situation is far worse: forced to cover their face, to travel with a chaperone, forbidden from interviewing officials, subject to harassment and threats, more than 80% of women journalists stopped working between August 2021 and August 2023, according to Amnesty International. Without women reporters, it is increasingly difficult to report on the situation of Afghan women, in a society where men are rarely allowed to interview women. Topics around women’s rights are particularly sensitive, and the amount of pressure put on media outlets and journalists made Kaboul, Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 29, 2024. Female journalists working in the office of a women-focused media. Since the Taliban came to power in August 2021, the Afghan media landscape has been decimated. According to Reporters Without Borders, in the three months following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, 43% of Afghan media outlets disappeared. Since then, more than two-thirds of the 12,000 journalists in the country in 2021 have left the profession. For women journalists, the situation is far worse: forced to cover their face, to travel with a chaperone, forbidden from interviewing officials, subject to harassment and threats, more than 80% of women journalists stopped working between August 2021 and August 2023, according to Amnesty International. Without women reporters, it is increasingly difficult to report on the situation of Afghan women, in a society where men are rarely allowed to interview women. Topics around women’s rights are particularly sensitive, and the amount of pressure put on media outlets and journalists made self-censorship the new rule for reporting. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

How have you been able to carry out your work under the current conditions?

We’ve had to work under difficult circumstances, and the security of the women we met was central to us, as was the security of our local colleagues. This means every single communication and meeting was the result of a case-by-case assessment of what is the safest. We regularly assessed the risks and occasionally had to cancel or postpone our meetings.We also made sure that every woman is comfortable with the level of anonymity, if any, in their photos.

Were you threatened or did you feel unsafe doing your work?

We have been living and working in Afghanistan long enough to know our way around the country and know how to avoid situations that can put us in danger. That being said, the shadow on intelligence service and the eyes and ears they have planted within the society was one big reason to keep us on our toes all the time. We found ourselves in a few uncomfortable situations where we had to check in with the team and make sure everyone was on board with the way we responded to the threat.

Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 3, 2024. Girls playing in the snow in western Kabul behind an apartment block, off the main road. Since the takeover, women and girls' rights to move without a male chaperon or to go to parks have been curtailed, and very few opportunities to find joy in their daily lives remain. A snowstorm in a quiet neighbourhood of Kabul western suburb offered such a chance for an hour of playing together. Even then, an eye is always kept on the surroundings, looking for a sign of a Taliban patrol. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac — Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, February 3, 2024. Girls playing in the snow in western Kabul behind an apartment block, off the main road. Since the takeover, women and girls’ rights to move without a male chaperon or to go to parks have been curtailed, and very few opportunities to find joy in their daily lives remain. A snowstorm in a quiet neighbourhood of Kabul western suburb offered such a chance for an hour of playing together. Even then, an eye is always kept on the surroundings, looking for a sign of a Taliban patrol. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

Aizabad, Badakhshan, Afghanistan | May, 11, 2024. A ripped poster shows how women are supposed to cover their faces: with a burqa, or chadari, a full face covering, or with a niqab, allowing only the eyes to be uncovered. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 2, 2024. A group of teenage girls celebrate their friend's birthday at her house. Music and dancing have been forbidden by the Taliban but women continue to dance and celebrate in the privacy of their homes and behind the closed doors. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac — Kabul, Kabul, Afghanistan, March 2, 2024. A group of teenage girls celebrate their friend’s birthday at her house. Music and dancing have been forbidden by the Taliban but women continue to dance and celebrate in the privacy of their homes and behind the closed doors. © Kiana Hayeri for Fondation Carmignac

What can the international community do in the face of such horror?

The international community walked away from Afghanistan, abandoning the same Afghan women they used as an excuse to intervene in 2001, knowing well what was awaiting them at the hands of the Taliban. They all, we all, bear a huge responsibility towards Afghan women. Governments should make women’s rights the centre of their engagement with the Taliban. They should listen to Afghan women, integrate them in discussions about Afghanistan. We also have to open our doors to women who want to leave Afghanistan, making sure they can do so in a safe way, and help them integrate and rebuild their lives. Much more needs to be done.

“No Woman’s Land”, Kiana Hayeri and Melissa Cornet’s exhibition about the Battle for Women’s Rights in Afghanistan will be on view at Réfectoire des Cordeliers and Port de Solférino, in Paris, from October 25 to November 18, 2024 as part of the PhotoSaintGermain festival.