RASC News Agency: Local sources from Herat province report that certain members of the Taliban group are interrogating women and young girls in the markets of Herat city due to their interactions with them, even pursuing them near their residences. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source informed RASC News Agency on Saturday, Apr 6, “I had ventured to the market a few days ago to procure supplies for Ramadan, only to witness Taliban members in Herat province trailing women and young girls all the way to their homes.”
“They engage in purposeless conversations with women and girls, only to follow them home minutes later,” the source added. Furthermore, the source noted that moral decay within the Taliban group is escalating, magnifying several folds compared to the Republic era. As per the source, women and young girls in Herat province are profoundly distressed about the prevailing circumstances in the markets and find it arduous to leave their residences easily. They necessitate the company of a male family member for shopping.
Meanwhile, another source from Herat province divulged to RASC News Agency that the Taliban are concocting a pretext to expel women from the markets and relocate them to their security posts. She appended that the Taliban primarily target women in the markets who lack male companionship. She implored Taliban authorities to rein in their subordinates while casting aspersions on others for corruption and immorality. “What preoccupations do your associates have while you’re busy levying allegations of corruption and immorality? It’s a dire tragedy when one cannot traverse their own city freely.”
Sunita Afshar, a women’s rights advocate in Afghanistan, disclosed to RASC News Agency that the most severe and relentless blow inflicted by the Taliban in Afghanistan has been on girls and women, a trend that endures. Ms. Afshar augmented, “95% of Afghanistani girls and women are not only bereft of education but also find themselves unemployed.” She opines that the aspirations of Afghanistani girls have transmuted into despair, and the Taliban, upon seizing power, have regressed women and girls by 15 to 20 years.
However, Fariba Rasmati, a civil activist in the western region of the country, affirms that the plight of Afghanistani girls and women presents a challenge unparalleled by many in other nations. She contends that if a survey were conducted among Afghanistani women and girls, unquestionably more than half would dissent against the Taliban’s policies and voice their discontent. She adds that the hopes of thousands of Afghanistani women and girls metamorphose into wishes when the Taliban cease to exist in the country, and the people of Afghanistan can thrive in peace and prosperity.
Conversely, Jamshid Rahmani, a knowledgeable figure in the western region of Afghanistan, relayed to RASC News Agency that the Taliban leader’s flight from Kandahar province to another locale signals the culmination of days of oppression against the oppressed. This informed individual candidly adds that though a few more days might linger for the Taliban in Afghanistan, they cannot impose restrictions on girls and women that contravene the values of diverse segments of Afghanistan society.
It is noteworthy that numerous girls and women from various provinces of western Afghanistan presently languish behind the walls of Taliban prisons for refusing to accede to the vacuous and futile demands of Tali
ban members.
