‘My hands tremble, my body is cold’: Afghan women and girls ‘forgotten’ under Taliban rule | World News

To mark International Women’s Day, a human rights defender anonymously shares her story.

Last week I had to attend the funeral of one of our relatives.

On the way, near the intersection, I saw a car stopped at a traffic light.

Suddenly, I realized there were Taliban members there.

They call it Muhtasibeen – I don’t know exactly in English.

They were from the Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, wearing white coats like doctors.

They stopped local transport vehicles and looked inside, especially at the women’s seating area. When they saw women without burqas or chadaris, they took the vehicle keys and ordered the driver to get everyone out.

It was a horrendous moment. I was so scared. I wore a hijab and winter coat, but not a burqa or chadari.

My hands were shaking, my body was cold, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. They check every car.

I remember in recent weeks, restrictions increased sharply in Herat province.

These white-coated Taliban members enforce strict rules on women, preventing them from walking freely on the streets on the grounds of “inappropriate hijab”.

On January 13, the Taliban arrested a group of women from a busy area of ​​the city simply for wearing an Arabic-style hijab.

I also remembered the story the day before, when a husband and wife were stopped and the husband was beaten because his wife was not wearing a burqa on the street. That memory made me even more afraid. My husband was also scared.

Suddenly I remembered he had a big winter scarf; the kind Afghan men wear. I took it and covered myself. When the Taliban member looked into our car, he probably thought there were two men and not a woman.

We passed the intersection safely, but I was still shaken.

When I was a child, I believed the white coat symbolized the doctor: help, healing, kindness.

I never imagined that one day they would be used to scare people, to hit and hurt them.

‘Endless suffering’

Since the Taliban took power, they have changed the meaning of everything for women.

While the world is busy with other crises, the Taliban is taking advantage of this silence to harass, oppress and torture women and girls in Afghanistan.

Previously, when there were security issues, police or soldiers stood at crossroads to protect the city.

Now, Taliban trucks and members of the Ministry of Virtue stand there just to enforce the dress code for women.

It’s really hard to believe. In my opinion, this is part of a system to remove women from public life.

Recently, they even stopped rickshaws in Herat, citing that it was caused by overcrowding.

But I believe the real goal is to make the women’s movement more difficult.

At a women’s meeting, one of them shared her experience. He said he needed groceries and used to take a rickshaw easily.

Now, because rickshaws are banned, he waits for a long time at the bus stop. Finally, several taxis came, but the driver refused to take him unless he paid a very high fare for a very short distance.

He ended up walking the rest of the way, alone and exhausted.

“As soon as I got home, I cried. It was so painful – being a woman in Afghanistan meant endless suffering,” she said.

Another taxi driver told him that the Taliban had instructed them not to take women or girls who were not wearing a chadari or burqa.

Now, local transportation is also prohibited for women. However, despite all this, there are still brave women who refuse to obey.

‘A silent act of resistance’

These Taliban muhtasibien are trying to scare everyone – they see women wearing burqas but don’t wear them.

These women walked freely until they reached a crossroads, then immediately put on their burqas, passed them, and took them off again.

The Taliban saw it, but they couldn’t do anything.

It was a silent act of resistance, a way of saying: “You may control the streets, but not our spirits.”

These stories make me very sad.

I remember in early November, the Taliban ordered teachers, nurses, doctors and even female patients to wear burqas when entering schools and hospitals.

And while all this is happening, the world has turned around.

‘We were forgotten’

A recent letter from the White House makes this clear: the US administration has shifted its foreign policy to focus only on its own interests, cutting foreign aid, and ignoring global consensus.

The letter proudly announced the end of “endless war” and a new era of “peace through strength,” but made no mention of the plight of Afghan women.

Not a single country has acknowledged the brutality we face. The message is clear: we are no longer a priority. We are forgotten.

Today, Afghanistan may not be a favorable or attractive place for America and European countries, but they are responsible for shaping history – and our lives – in this way.

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Their silence and neglect gave the Taliban the space to erase Afghan women and girls from public life.

The international community is busy with other headlines – Venezuela, Iran, Greenland – and the Taliban are using this silence to tighten their grip.

They remove us from public life, from the streets, from education, from hospitals, from transportation.

The world, which was once full of promise, is now silent.

We’re still here. We are still fighting. But we are alone. Will the world hear the voices of Afghan women and support us?

I urge the international community not to abandon women in the Taliban’s climate of fear.