“We will never stop advocating for your rights” Says US Official to Afghan Women
Published Thursday, May 16th, 2024
Written by Hussain Ali Haidari
Karen B. Decker, the Charge d’Affaires of the US Embassy to Afghanistan, said that Washington will never stop advocating women’s rights. On Thursday, May 9, 2024, Decker announced on X about her meeting with Tom West, the US special representative, and Rina Amiri, the US Special Envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights. She wrote in his tweet: “We will never stop advocating for your rights.”
She stated that they discussed the work of women and girls in Afghanistan. After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, women and girls have been deprived of their basic rights, including education and work. Decker had previously criticized the policies of the Taliban towards Afghan women. The Chargé d’Affaires of the US embassy to Kabul has said that the Taliban’s restrictions on working women cost Afghanistan one billion dollars a year, and this country cannot afford it.
Decker said in a virtual meeting with media officials last month that no country in the world has completely excluded half of its population from public life. She added that based on their count, the Taliban have issued more than 50 orders against Afghan women. According to her, the people of Afghanistan have said many times that they want women to study, work, and participate in public life. Decker has stated that depriving half of the Afghan population (girls) from education weakens the country’s economy.
Decker added: “No country can stand on its feet when half of its population is unable to make a living or help the family.” Decker continued that guaranteeing the rights of all Afghan citizens, including women, is a strategic necessity for this country. Recently, Rina Amiri said that due to the misogynistic actions of the Taliban, Afghanistan loses more than one billion dollars annually.
In the last two years, women’s rights activists in Kabul have repeatedly criticized the silence of the international community regarding their rights. With the return of the Taliban to power, women in Afghanistan have become the main victims of the cruel and discriminatory decisions of this group.
In the first days of their coming to power, the Taliban imposed severe restrictions on the economic, social, and political activities of women. They took away women’s rights at different stages and through different decrees. On May 21, 2022, the Taliban asked Afghan women TV presenters to cover their faces when appearing on TV. Likewise, on May 7, 2022, the Taliban asked women to wear a burqa in public. Wearing a burqa for women became mandatory in Afghanistan after two decades. The Taliban warned women that if they do not comply with this order, their men will be imprisoned for up to three days. On May 3, 2022, the Taliban ordered driving schools in Herat province not to teach women how to drive.
Following the Taliban’s discriminatory decisions, middle and high school girls were banned from going to school on March 22, 2022. The Taliban say that a comprehensive and Islamic plan is needed to open girls’ schools. Depriving girls from school in Afghanistan was met with internal and international protests. However, the Taliban ignored all these protests, and girls in Afghanistan are still denied from going to school. On February 3, 2022, the Taliban asked public and private universities to separate boys’ and girls’ classes. This decision of the Taliban caused private universities to face severe financial problems. The implementation of this plan put a heavy cost on the hands of private universities. Private universities were obliged to consider separate classes
for girls.
In some cases, the Taliban asked the universities that the teachers of female students should be women and not men. For the universities, most of them are not in good financial condition, so it was not easy to implement this decision, but the Taliban forced the universities to implement this decision. During their more than two years of rule, the Taliban have not been satisfied with these things. On September 19, 2021, the Taliban group asked female employees to stay at home and not come to work. Most of the employees of the government offices were deprived of work following this decision of the Taliban.