‘Terrible days ahead’: Afghan women fear the return of the Taliban
After 20 years of liberty, female education is once again threatened by hardline Islamists
By Akhtar Mohammad Makoii in Herat and Michael Safi
Outside a college from which their mothers were banned, the women waited for friends finishing exams they fear will be some of the last they can take. “The Americans are leaving,” said Basireh Heydari, a Herat University student. “We have terrible days ahead with the Taliban. I’m worried they won’t let me leave the house, let alone what I’m doing now.”
The Biden administration’s decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by 11 September will bring an end to the US’s longest war. With Nato allies such as Germany already announcing on Wednesday that they will follow Washington’s lead and exit the country, Afghans fear an intensification of fighting between the national government and the Taliban, who were ousted by the US-led intervention two
Violence against civilians, especially women and children, has surged over the past year, according to UN statistics released on Wednesday, and Taliban control of the country is greater than at any point in the past two decades. The benefits of an ongoing foreign military presence in the country are unclear.
But a return to hardline Islamist rule could mean the rollback of one of the interventionâs least disputed achievements â the lifting of a Taliban prohibition of female education.
On Wednesday, Heydari and her friends were trying to absorb the news as they sat in a rickshaw by the university gates. âI have only one wish, and thatâs to finish my studies and of course work, but with the Taliban coming, I donât think Iâll reach it,â she said.