Taliban Afghanistan Takeover: Here Is How Militants Drove Women Out Of Public View, Behind The Veil

Two years after the Taliban took over Afghanistan after overthrowing the Ashraf Ghani-led government, the militant group has pushed the women out of public spaces and behind the veil. 

Despite assurances in the beginning that the Taliban's second stint would be better than the first (1996-2001), the regime showed true colours within months and barred girls from secondary education and women from most employment opportunities. Sports and gyms have been closed and unaccompanied travel has also been banned. The last nail in the coffin was last month when beauty salons, the last public space accessible to women, were also ordered to be shut. 

In addition, whenever women are allowed in public, they are supposed to be covered head to toe with only their eyes uncovered. 

Such conditions are a far cry from the progress Afghan women made during 2001-21. Even though the country remained deeply conservative and insecure as the Taliban waged a serious insurgency throughout, the Afghan women had made great strides. During 2001-18, the number of girls in primary school increased from almost zero to 2.5 million, according to United Nations (UN). In the same period, women in higher education increased from around 5,000 in 2001 to over 1,00,000 in 2021.

In 2023, however, the condition is such that 1.1 million girls and young women have no formal education and 80 per cent of school-aged girls and young women, numbered at around 2.5 million, are are out of school, says a UN report published in January, which adds that nearly 30 per cent girls have never entered primary education.

Here we list the actions that led to the systemic removal of women and girls from the public space and erosion of gains over two decades.

Girls banned from schools, women from work

Within weeks of coming to power, the Taliban regime in September 2021 banned girls from secondary schools. 

Around the same time, women government staffers in Kabul were told to stay at home. The BBC News notes that only those women staffers whose jobs could not have been done by men were asked to come to work. 

In September 2021, the Taliban also banned women from playing sports. This mean that the flourishing women and girls sports scene in Afghanistan ended within a day and sportswomen. Not just professional sports, but women were also banned for gyms. The Afghan women who once competed in sports ranging from football to cycling and even para-sports are now forced to stay at home amid Taliban's diktats and intimidation.

Women banned from travelling unaccompanied 

In December 2021, women were barred from travelling unaccompanied beyond a distance of 72 km. To travel beyond 72 km, Afghan women need to be accompanied by a male.

Women told to cover head to toe

In May 2022, women in Afghanistan were told to cover head to toe only eyes were meant to be visible. The order of the new dress code came directly from Taliban regime's Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

"Those women who are not too old or young must cover their faces, except the eyes," said the order. The responsibility to ensure women's compliance with the new dress code was assigned to male family members of women. 

The Taliban also ordered at the time that unless there was important work, women had no business leaving homes. Shir Mohammad of Vice and Virtue Ministry of the regime said, "For all dignified Afghan women wearing Hijab is necessary and the best Hijab is chadori (the head-to-toe burqa) which is part of our tradition and is respectful...Those women who are not too old or young must cover their face, except the eyes."

Vice and Virtue Minister Khalid Hanafi said, "We want our sisters to live with dignity and safety...Islamic principles and Islamic ideology are more important to us than anything else."

The days of wearing colourful clothes or heels that women, mostly in urban areas, had taken to in two decades to freedom, had come to an end. 

"Women who had worn long colourful tunics, a hijab, jeans and high heels told us they had begun to wear loose black abayas (gowns), a hijab, a surgical mask to cover their faces and trainers or boots. More women also began to wear black burkas," noted BBC.

Women banned from universities, NGOs, and public spaces

In November, women were barred from parks because they were not following sharia, said the Taliban regime. Sharia is the Islamic law. The Taliban follows a strict interpretation of Sharia in running Afghanistan. 

"We have often seen that such rulings announced for one city are invariably implemented across Afghanistan - as was the case with the parks ban. Nearby, from the roof of a restaurant overlooking an amusement park in Kabul, we saw fathers with their children, Taliban fighters, and groups of boys enjoying an evening out, with no women in sight," reported BBC. 

In December, the Taliban regime ordered all universities in the countries to suspend women's education. Until then, while girls were not allowed secondary schooling, women were allowed to continue university studies. 

Within days, the Taliban ordered all Afghan and international non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to stop their women staffers from coming to work. Since 2001, NGOs sustaining on international aid had been a major source of employment in the country. 

Beauty salons banned

After banning secondary schooling for girls, university education for women, sports for all females, parks for all females, and ordering them to cover themselves head to toe if all they have to be in public, the Taliban in July trained its guns at the last remaining piece of public sphere open to women: beauty salons. 

In July 2023, the Taliban ordered the closure of beauty salons. The decision to close salons was not just the last nail in the coffin from women's liberties but also an economic blow as, even after all the restrictions over two years, around 60,000 women worked in the industry, according to BBC. 

As of now, the Taliban regime only allows women to work in certain sectors where duties cannot be carried out by women, such as in security and public health sectors where the Taliban does not want male personnel to treat women patients and male security personnel to check females because of its gender segregation principles.