Facing similar restrictions under the Taliban (banned in Russia), a young mother in Afghanistan shared her story with Sputnik on how she planned to help her daughters, as her mother did in the 1990s
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th October, 2021) Facing similar restrictions under the Taliban (banned in Russia), a young mother in Afghanistan shared her story with Sputnik on how she planned to help her daughters, as her mother did in the 1990s.
Being a 13-year-old girl in Afghanistan in 1996, FD, who wished only to be identified by the initials of her name, could no longer go to school because of new restrictions the Taliban introduced after taking power. Fortunately, the Taliban's ban did not halt FD's education thanks to her mother, who was a school teacher and decided to continue to teach her at home.
Today, FD's oldest daughter, who is 15, faces the exact same challenges of going to school, after the Taliban took over the country once again in August. Following in her mother's footsteps, FD decided to help her daughter and other girls in the neighborhood by running an underground school out of her apartment.
"Unfortunately, history has repeated itself in a bad way in Afghanistan. My children are experiencing the same troubles as I did more than 20 years ago. But we shouldn't give up and we should invest our time and resources in the next generation," FD told Sputnik.
FD and her husband, who is a doctor, started to offer various classes for girls at her daughter's age from their apartment in Kabul.
"Me and her father, we have established some underground classes for girls in our building. We have 7 girls now. We provide some basic education for them according to their curriculum. My husband, who is a medical doctor, teaches them science, chemistry and mathematics. I teach them about basic human rights, self-confidence as well as literature. My oldest daughter helps them with English, because her English is very proficient," FD said.
She explained that her oldest daughter was an excellent student in school and had prepared to continue her studies in universities overseas.
The girls aged between 10-15 came to FD's home from 8-10am every day for two hours of classes.
As a human rights activist and an advocate of women's rights for over 15 years, FD understood how important education was for young girls in Afghanistan.
"I don't want their time to be wasted. It's not acceptable if our next generation is wasting their time like this," she said.
Throughout her career, FD has been trying to help women in Afghanistan to improve their lives.
As a gender specialist at an international organization operating in Afghanistan, FD helped Afghan women to learn how to invest in agricultural businesses as part of economic empowerment efforts.
"The main objective of the project was to improve contribution of women, especially those as heads of their households, through agriculture. Fortunately, we established two women-based companies and we also offered internship opportunities for young female university graduates under this project," she said.
Before the Taliban took over the country in August, FD worked as a gender and diversity ministering manager at an organization under the former Afghan government.
However, FD's previous activities in promoting gender equality and women's rights have made her a clear target for the Taliban.
Security officers have visited her apartment twice since the Taliban takeover in August. Fortunately, FD and her family went into hiding during those visits.
"The second time, they searched our apartment. We were not at home. But they opened our door. They didn't find any documents, fortunately, because we removed all the documents, laptops and other evidence before they came," she said.
FD believes the security officers were specifically looking for her and asked the guard of the building by her name.
"The Taliban has been tracing me. I have dedicated 15 years of my life to care for the victims of war, women, children and persons with disability. I will not be able to continue my work under the control of the Taliban in Afghanistan and they will murder me," she said.
That's also why FD hopes to leave the country with her family if she has a chance in the near future, because she doesn't want to bring additional threats to her family because of her previous work.
"I'm a human rights defender and I'm a well-known person in Afghanistan. If I'm arrested, it'll be very risky not only for me, but also for my family and my children. It'll be very difficult for me, if my children, my husband, as well as my parents, are harmed because of my activities," she said.
FD added that her father used to serve as a commander in the Afghan national army and her brothers worked closely with the US-led coalition forces, which made all of them vulnerable under the Taliban rule.
She expressed hope that the international community would put more pressure on the Taliban to uphold international standards by respecting the basic rights of women and all ethnic groups.
The rights advocate stressed that the Taliban's behavior and policies after taking over the country had shown that the group had not changed compared to its previous rule in Afghanistan during the 1990s.
