Things are heating up everywhere and Ahmad Fidakar, Afghan photojournalist, has asked me to share his latest article:
The situation of Afghan women and children under the Taliban Government.
Afghanistan is a war-torn country and the people of Afghanistan have experienced forty years of war. The Afghan people, especially Afghan women and children, have been the main victims of the war during these years and have suffered a great deal. Public places like schools, hospitals and roads have been destroyed and conveniences have been taken away from people. The war finally ended with the victory of the Taliban who took over the Government on August 15, 2021.
Children are the victims of this long war, and they have been deprived of the world of childhood. Almost four million Afghan children are deprived of education and half of this number are girls. The lack of proper environments for education, the low economy of families and the lack of security are the main reasons for children not being able to study.
With the change of regime in Afghanistan in this one year and five months the economic situation of familieshas worsened; Afghan families cannot pay their children’s expenses and the children have to go and work hard. Currently, more than one million Afghan children are engaged in hard work and are deprived of education; and these children are victims of poverty.
The Taliban government has no solution for this bad situation of children and it cannot solve the problem easily. Let me remind you that the Taliban government has been blocking education in Afghanistan for more than a year, and the Taliban has been closing schools, which is very worrying. Children have been forgotten in Afghanistan.
Afghan society is a patriarchal society and women are condemned to be like servants in patriarchal families.Women do not have a special place in the Taliban Government and ever since the Taliban established the Islamic Emirate in Afghanistan, women have been deprived of their freedom and rights.
An example is closing schools for girls. After the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021, most adolescent girls were again prevented from returning to secondary education, and women were prevented from working in most sectors outside of health and education. Women were ordered to wear face coverings in public and were prohibited from traveling more than 70 kilometers (40 miles) without a close male relative. It is a fact that women are excluded from the social and political structures of society. Imagine how painful the situation of women is in remote districts of Afghanistan under Taliban rule.
