Almost a year ago, the Taliban took power in Afghanistan. They had taken advantage of the departure of the American army from the country to lead an offensive. Very quickly, they took over the regular army and managed to control most of the territory.
Today, where are the promises of respect and benevolence made at the time by the Taliban? How do women live? Our presenter Antoine Schuurwegen posed these questions to Philippe Hensmans, director of Amnesty International Belgium.
Antoine Schuurwegen: A year ago, the Taliban had tried to present themselves as frequentable. We are now a year later, what is the situation of women and young women in Afghanistan?
Philip Hensmans: The situation is very, very far from what the Taliban had promised at the time, since they had promised to guarantee all their rights. First, there was a terrible repression which took place concerning the women who had dared to demonstrate against the change of their living conditions. They were imprisoned, tortured, sometimes simply disappeared. In addition, there is a whole series of measures that have also been taken, such as the ban on going to secondary school, the ban on working in most jobs. Which resulted in a whole series of measures that had a very negative impact on their daily lives, including the increase in marriages, for example.
Antoine Schuurwegen: Many women are arrested for minor offences. What are their conditions of detention?
Philip Hensmans: The conditions are abominable, truly abominable. What do we see? Not only do they have no guarantee, no legal guarantee. Well, we expected that. But in addition, they are often beaten up, tortured. To give you a very small example, a number of women were posting photos on social media of injuries inflicted on them during torture by the Taliban. In order to avoid that, the Taliban have now decided to beat them up by kicking them on the breasts, on the legs, on the crotch. All areas of the body that they cannot show on social networks.
Antoine Schuurwegen: According to the latest Amnesty International report, and you mentioned it, the number of child marriages and early marriages is also increasing.
Philip Hensmans: Exactly, there is a very large increase in the number of forced marriages and child marriages for several reasons. First, the economic situation of the country is quite disastrous, and it has not improved with the takeover of the Taliban. On the other hand, there is also a desire on the part of the Taliban to automatically marry certain women. To resist this economic situation, the lack of work for example, of income for the young girl, we will marry her to someone, and if possible to someone who is not a Taliban. So, the Taliban not only tries to marry off young girls, but to avoid these marriages, a lot of families marry their daughters very very early to other people to avoid this type of consequence.