The Black Time

Three girls who have been arrested by the Taliban with no logical reasons, even not approved by the Quran.

Khadija:

She is a young Afghan girl who was training girls in Taekwondo in a gym without the permission of the Taliban.. If a male trainer had been present at the gym, this would have been a crime according to the Taliban, as they believe it is a crime for a male and female to see and communicate with each other, even if according to Islamic values. However, in the gym, there were only girls. Nevertheless, when the Taliban learnt about this gym for girls, they arrested Khadija and the managers. After one day, the other people who were arrested with Khadija were released, but Khadija was kept for two weeks and was not permitted to even meet her family members. 

Proudly, silence was broken by all Afghan youth and activists’ extreme anxiousness with their advocacy on social media. 

Soon, Khadija was sent to court and released with lots of threats that if she did it again, she would be sent to jail for her whole lifespan. 

Then, I talked to her friends and they discovered that she was depressed because she was not talking to her friends and unwilling to see them. 

She said “I have not been kept under physical violence”, but being occupied for the rest of her future without the possibility to create empowerment opportunities, independence, and resilience for herself and the other Afghan girls. There is enough violence against human rights and gender equality to inspire us to start advocating and taking actions on the violent situation millions of girls go through. 

An Afghan girl:

She is a very young and active tour guide in Afghanistan and due to her safety concerns I can not mention her name. Once when she was guiding a tour in Herat, the Taliban called her and told her to come to Herat’s ministry of information and culture because they needed to share some new rules regarding her profession. So she asked one of her friends to guide the tours and went to the ministry herself, alone. She said “when I entered the room, a huge number of Amer Be Maroof were sitting there.” They started asking her personal questions such as how old are you, where do you live and lots of details about her life. While she answered all their questions, they took her mobile phone and bag and sent her to jail. . Then she immediately called her brother. When her brother went there, he asked the Taliban why they had arrested his sister. The Taliban asked, “are you not embarrassed that your sister goes outside and works while you are still alive?” As she said, she was kept with criminals who killed someone in one cell and it had been a very frightening experience. Consequently, by her brother's efforts to persuade some credible people to guarantee her, she was released in order to not to leave her occupation. If she does it once more, all five people who guaranteed her, and her brother, will be sent to jail for five years. Now there is a huge uncertainty in her life because of the violence and tolerance of the Taliban. 

Noria:   

She is a thirteen-year old girl arrested by the Taliban. Her story began when she was just ten and she lost her father. With no male guardian, she had to work in order to survive in extreme poverty. As girls and women are denied from working outside, she changed her name, wore male clothes, and cut her hair like a boy to be able to work for three years. As if losing great years of her childhood working and hiding her gender was not enough violence, the Taliban arrested her when they learnt that she is a girl in the guise of a boy. It has now been more than two weeks since she is in jail, and everyone is advocating for her on social media. So I kindly ask you to join in this advocacy, hold campaigns to raise awareness on the women’s rights crisis in Afghanistan, and question the qualification of a terrorist group. As the world stood up with Ukrainians, Palestinians, and Iranians, let’s speak up and stand up for the diminished rights and lives of Afghan women and girls because they are humans, too. And these are just the voices we know, there are thousands of stories just like these that are not heard because of safety concerns, no freedom of speech, and silence of people themselves.