Link to Canva Collage [Press play to start the video (As the Taliban) when ready]

What is the treatment of women under the Taliban? While this seems like a rather simple

question with a rather simple answer – abusive – it led me down a path of eye-opening readings

that gave me a more personal insight into the social injustices under Taliban control. I was

searching for a starting point in the archives when I noticed some work from Amnesty

International. I had heard of Amnesty International before, so I decided to take a look at

AFGHANISTAN: The legacy of human suffering in a forgotten war. I had mixed feelings during

the evacuation of Kabul and America’s choice to leave Afghanistan, so I felt that it would be an

interesting topic to look at. But rather than focusing on the event or the military aspects of it, I

was more interested in a side to everything that I had never delved into before: how would the

Taliban takeover impact women’s rights? Trying to use the class archives proved somewhat

difficult at first, but I was able to use it as a launchpad to get full texts and information from

EBSCOhost, which I had used in the past for research. After the two articles, I wanted to get

different modalities for my collage, thus I started looking for images and videos using the

keywords “Taliban” and “Women”. I struggled more with finding images and videos than I did

with getting good articles. This is likely a result of my inexperience with using the archives, but

with some searching, I was able to locate some more additions to my collage. The picture I

decided on was of Malala, a Nobel Prize winner and a champion for women and girls’ rights in

Pakistan. As soon as I saw her and read the caption, I remembered reading about her several

years ago, and I decided immediately that her photo would be part of the collage. Then as I was

looking for the last item to add, I found a video about a woman who escaped Kabul but was

unable to get her children out.

 A woman in a burqa begging on the streets of Kabul
(Afghanistan: The Legacy of Human Suffering in a
Forgotten War: 1995 Onwards. Amnesty International)

The collage consists of four items, all of

which describe the suffering of women under Talib rule. The first item is the collection by

Amnesty International, more specifically, the latter part, from 1995 onwards, in which the

Taliban rose to power and took control of the lives of women. The article outlines some of the

restrictions the Taliban had placed upon the Afghani women, for example, women had to be

covered from head to toe and could be publicly beaten if their outfit was considered improper,

something as minor as wearing the wrong color shoes. The Taliban also banned girls from

attending school and prohibited women from working (at least in some capacity). (Afghanistan)

Malala Yousafzai (©
Zuma Press-MCT)

The Pakistani Taliban similarly sought to stop girls from attending

school, which led to the actions of Malala Yousafzai, a young girl who was barred from school
by the Taliban and went to tell the world about it. She ended up earning a Nobel Prize for her

bravery and activism, but her actions also led to a failed assassination attempt by the Taliban in

which she was shot in the neck and head. (”15-Yr-Old) As the Pakistani Taliban fought social

change, the Taliban in Afghanistan fought against the Afghan military and the foreign troops in

the country. This fighting would ultimately lead to the fall of the Afghan government in 2021, as

the United States pulled out of Afghanistan; the second article I found was about a young

woman's struggle during the evacuation of Kabul, as the U.S. was leaving, and countless Afghan

civilians were also trying to get out. This article was the one I found most interesting and was

what really compelled me to continue with my inquiry despite a few setbacks. She is a female

journalist who feared for her safety as the Taliban closed in on Kabul, she describes her fear as a

result of the Taliban’s oppression of women and their hostility toward journalists. But she did not

only worry about her own safety but the safety of her younger sister as well. The article details

her experience going to and from the airport several times while trying to get onto a plane out of

the country. She also describes how the Taliban were obstructing her path to the airport and

trying to force women to travel with male partners. Despite the Taliban presence, she and her

sister were successful in getting out of the country on a C-130 cargo plane, but sadly she had to

leave other family behind. (Seddique) The last object I put in my collage is

quite reminiscent of that article but was much sadder. It is a video of a mother whose children

were kidnapped by a relative and were unable to leave with her as she escaped the country
during the same evacuation, and she is now terrified for her children, especially her oldest

daughter, whom she fears will be taken by the Taliban, who have kidnapped young girls and

forced them to marry soldiers. (As the Taliban)

I feel that it’s hard to describe the impact of these stories, particularly the second article

and the video. It is painful to read that a young woman feels betrayed by the United States after

they abandoned the people of Afghanistan, as she puts it. And it fills me with both sadness and

anger hearing about the people left behind in the war-torn country where women must live in

constant fear and oppression. This project has opened a new side of the Afghanistan situation to

me; while I had a general inclination of the Taliban’s basic ideas towards women, it didn’t hit me

until reading these articles and watching these videos the severity and reality of the situation.
 Works Cited

"15-Yr-Old Peace Award Winner Injured in Gun Attack on School Van in Pakistan." Asian
News International, Oct 09, 2012. ProQuest, http://proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login?
url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/15-yr-old-peace-award-winner-injured-gun-
attack/docview/1095406020/se-2.
Afghanistan: The Legacy of Human Suffering in a Forgotten War: 1995 Onwards. Amnesty
International, New York, NY, 1999. Alexander Street,
https://search.alexanderstreet.com/view/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cdocument
%7C1524818.
As the Taliban Tightens its Grip, an Afghan Mother Fears for Her Children. Anonymous WP
Company LLC d/b/a The Washington Post, 2021.
Seddique, Bushra. “My Escape From the Taliban.” Atlantic, vol. 330, no. 2, Sept. 2022, pp. 20–
28. EBSCOhost, https://search-ebscohost-com.proxy.lib.ohio-state.edu/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=aph&AN=158440077&site=ehost-live.

© Zuma Press-MCT