The Taliban have covered the woman’s mind, soul and whole body.”
With these words, Zuhal sums up the drama of the Taliban’s return to Afghan power. There are more and more restrictions on women’s lives, even to breathe: they are already forbidden to go to public parks.
“And it’s not just women who suffer”, he emphasizes.
20 years old, Zuhal coordinates from Kabul one of the semi-clandestine education networks for girls and women, with branches in different provinces. “In Kabul we teach in six different places. A couple of times a week. And between twelve and twenty students attend each class”, he explains in a telephone conversation with La Vanguardia without many details, for security reasons.
“In our organization we try to gather people who want to do something for their country, especially for women. We are now about two hundred people involved in the project. All women,” says Zuhal.
The Taliban only allow girls to receive education until the age of twelve. From this age, neither high school nor university. the darkness The burqa as a mortilla. “The government thinks that women are a useless part of society”, says the activist.
His organization manages legal schools (up to the permitted age), and takes advantage of this legality to sneak older girls, also adult women, into the classes, and open up the range of subjects taught there.
Do Pashtun women (the predominant ethnic group among the Taliban) go to classes?
“The majority are Tajiks and Hazaras – says Zuhal – but women end up coming from everywhere”.
What do the girls who go to these semi-clandestine classes think? Notice that something is not normal?
“In Afghanistan, conflicts unfold before the eyes of girls and boys, they know what’s going on. We tell them that, if someone asks them where they are going, always say that they are going to a relative’s house.”
Are there clandestine classes for university girls?
“There are other people who carry out these programs. People who are inspired and willing to take this risk and do these classes in their own home.”
All this brutal pressure on women ends up being a veil for the soul of Afghan women. “In addition to the lack of access to work and closed doors to education – reports Zuhal – Afghan women suffer from mental health problems. And the traumas that affect a mother affect all members of the family, it ends up making them all sad. Mental health problems extend to the whole family, they don’t stay with women”.
Why didn’t you leave Afghanistan?
“My main goal in life is not to leave Afghanistan and live in a relaxed place. I have to resist, you know, fight these battles”.
What if the Taliban found out about your activism?
“Nothing good would happen. They would interrogate me and subject me to an evaluation process. And I would suffer because of the teachers I coordinate”.
Do you walk alone on the street?
“I go alone. I don’t want to depend on my father or my brother. It’s my nature. But it’s not easy at all. I can’t talk to anyone. I have to be very careful, they are everywhere. They’re always trying to find which rule you don’t follow.”
Are you optimistic about the future of Afghan women?
“No. Because, to be honest, at this moment I don’t see any future”.
