A year ago, the Taliban captured Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, and NATO troops hastily left the country. Since then, the situation of women in the country has deteriorated sharply. Their rights and freedoms are massively violated. They can no longer study, work, participate in public life and even go out unaccompanied. In August of this year, around 40 women demonstrated in Kabul in front of the Afghan Ministry of Education. His demand: “Bread, work and freedom!” The Taliban’s reaction: Armed militants opened fire on the crowd, fleeing women were beaten with rifle butts, as were journalists who tried to cover what was happening.

Afghan women left to their own devices

Shikiba Babori, journalist and ethnologist, is shocked by the current situation: “Many men in Afghanistan have learned nothing more than to use weapons to achieve their goals rather than persuade with arguments,” she told DW in a telephone interview. “Women who dare to say something are bullied, threatened and killed.”

But the journalist also criticizes the West, which, in her opinion, could not protect women’s rights. She discusses this in her new book “Die Afghaninnen: Spielball der Politik”, which was recently published. For example, the publicist notes that before the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan, the US government declared that it wanted to free Afghan women. So American feminists enthusiastically welcomed these plans.

However, after the hasty withdrawal of international military coalition forces from Kabul in 2021, this “liberation” remained empty words – Afghan women were left to fend for themselves. Babori notes with regret that feminists in the United States say little about this issue.

Afghanistan: a country with a rich history

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock took an active position on this issue. She openly stated that under the Taliban the situation of women and girls has become “unbearable”, they live “as in a prison” because they are deprived of any freedom: they are forbidden to study and even move freely without male relatives.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Burbock emphasizes the responsibility of NATO countries to the Afghan people and calls for more support for women fighting for their rights

But what Germany’s foreign minister calls today’s “bitter reality” has been “normal” for many Afghan women outside Kabul and major cities over the past 20 years, says Shikiba Babori. “In more than half of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces, the situation of women has never changed for the better.”

Shikiba Babori was born in Kabul and emigrated to Germany in the 1970s. She knows the country and its people well. In her book, she details the historical development of Afghanistan since the 1920s. Among other things, Shakiba repeatedly notes the huge difference between the city and the countryside: “If you look at the fate of Afghan women living outside the big cities , you will see that a small number of them managed to take advantage of the few opportunities that were in the last 20 years.”

Is civil war possible?

But even those women who took every opportunity for their development and education today feel abandoned by the Western powers, which assured them of their support. Waslat Hasrat-Nazimi, journalist at DW and author of the book “Die Löwinnen von Afghanistan”, which was published on August 16, 2022, talks about this in her book. “Women are disappointed that the promise of freedom they were given has not been kept. At the same time, some are just too happy that the war is over.” However, Hasrat Nazimi suggests that “it will probably only get worse, there will be more armed clashes between various Taliban groups, and IS fighters will only strengthen their positions”.

In Afghanistan today, above all, they fear that the West will lose all interest in what is happening and turn away from this country completely, Shikiba Babori believes. Just as it did after the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan in 1989. Then civil war broke out with renewed vigor.

Special hope for Germany

A glimmer of hope at the moment has been, according to Shikiba Babori, Annalena Burbock’s “feminist” foreign policy. Because it emphasizes the responsibility of NATO countries to the Afghan people, especially in view of the catastrophic humanitarian situation in the country. “Women cannot leave the house, girls are forbidden to go to school. People sell their organs to get money. Parents sell their children. Some just give them away so that there is one less eater at home. About that only in special cases”, said the German foreign minister.

Both Babori and Hasrat Nazimi place great hope in Afghan women, who must find the strength within themselves to act. Her book not only points out the mistakes of Western foreign policy, it also inspires: she talks about activists who don’t give up, as well as historical figures who fought for human rights and freedoms in Afghanistan.

Afghan women against tablibs

This struggle is being continued by 40 courageous Afghan women who have returned to demonstrate in Kabul. And they are not the only ones. Shikiba Babori tells the story of a young woman who was only supposed to read a poem on stage under the Taliban flag, but took the chance and demanded that the girls’ schools be opened. And these women simply need to be actively supported today, journalist and writer Shikiba Babori is sure. In her book, the current situation is analyzed without embellishment, and the historical panorama of the struggle for women’s rights in Afghanistan is not only impressive, but also instructive. The Afghan activist isn’t shy about calling a spade a spade, criticizing the West’s mistakes and making clear demands to politicians. One is that women in Afghanistan need to be heard and supported, not just on the anniversary of the Taliban takeover, but throughout the year.

Shikiba Babori’s book was published by Campus-Verlag on July 20, 2022. A book by DW publisher Waslat Hasrat-Nasimi published by Rohwohlt on August 16, 2022.