It is now two years since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan on 15 August 2021, causing a new phase of crisis that continues to affect every sector of Afghan life.
Economic crisis, poverty, constant violations of human rights, especially of women and children, are the aspects that have characterized Afghanistan from August 2021 to the present day, to which is added a wave of drought. Afghanistan is, to this day, a country in abyss.
It is not new that women and girls are the main target of the Taliban. During their occupation in the 1990s, a series of edicts and regulations were promulgated with the aim of drastically reducing the fundamental rights and freedoms of the female gender. Twenty years later this scenario seems to repeat itself: norm after norm, women and girls are once again deprived of their fundamental rights, guaranteed by international conventions and treaties that the Taliban persistently ignore.
The list of prohibitions imposed on women is impressive and involves four main categories: freedom of movement, clothing, education, and work.
Women are no longer free to move around without being accompanied by a male relative (mahram). To this, it is necessary to add the prohibition of free assembly and association. Women find themselves confined within the walls of their homes and deprived of the freedom of expression seeing repressed any kind of protest.
In the realm of clothing, the Taliban immediately "invited and recommended" women to fully cover themselves in public. Threats, beatings, and persecution, however, were not absent in cases of non-compliance with this invitation. Nevertheless, the obligation to fully cover the body was not delayed: it was on 7 May 2022.
The bans that have been imposed on education are also important. Women and girls no longer have the right to continue their studies with secondary education. It has been three years now that the Taliban have denied young Afghan girls the right to education, a violence that severely impacts their mental health, shatters their dreams and hopes, and undoubtedly will have consequences on the country's economy.
Limitations also affect the labour sector. Women are excluded from both the public and private sectors. It was the exclusion of women from International and Non-Governmental Organizations that led to a contraction of humanitarian aid from donor countries. Particularly important in this context is the ban on women working in the medical sector, which, combined with the prohibition on receiving care from male doctors, results in a complete exclusion of women from basic medical assistance.
According to Amnesty International, these actions by the Taliban against women can be attributed to a gender-based persecution, a crime against humanity.
A critical human rights situation is compounded by a dramatic economic crisis. UNICEF has defined the Afghan crisis as "an unprecedented humanitarian emergency," and the collected data undoubtedly confirm this picture:
- 64% of the Afghan population cannot meet their basic needs.
- 4 million people are seriously malnourished.
- more than 28 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance.
- 79% of families lack access to clean water, affecting approximately 21.2 million people.
- 13.3 million people are without medical care.
It is precisely because of this catastrophic humanitarian situation that Afghanistan has been dependent for years on foreign humanitarian aid. In March 2023, US$4.6 billion was earmarked to assist the most troubled and at-risk Afghans. However, this amount saw a drastic reduction of approximately 30% when the Taliban imposed a ban on women working in Non-Governmental Organizations and International Organizations (including the United Nations). The figure has therefore fallen to USD 3.2 billion, which is insufficient to guarantee sufficient humanitarian aid. It is evident that donor countries are becoming increasingly reluctant to provide aid to a country that makes human rights violations its mantra.
A third important aspect of this crisis is the third wave of drought that is hitting the population hard. Afghanistan has always been particularly vulnerable to climate change, and it is currently grappling with a lack of water. In a country where the livelihood of the majority of the population depends on agriculture, a wave of drought only aggravates the humanitarian picture. Indeed, 6 million people are on the brink of famine and 16 million children wake up hungry every day.
What Afghanistan is facing is therefore a worsening crisis that unfolds in every sphere of daily life: human rights, economy, climate, and politics. It is one of the most severe humanitarian crises currently ongoing, and we cannot ignore it.
Sources are freely available at:
https://www.unicef.it/emergenze/afghanistan/
https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/lafghanistan-a-due-anni-dal-ritorno-dei-talebani-138668
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/08/10/afghanistan-repression-worsens-2-years-taliban-rule
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L'Autore
Giorgia Milan
Giorgia Milan, classe 1998, ha conseguito una laurea triennale in “scienze politiche, relazioni internazionali e governo delle amministrazioni”, con una tesi riguardo la condizione femminile in Afghanistan, e successivamente una laurea magistrale in “Human rights and multi-level governance”, con una tesi riguardo la condizione delle donne rifugiate nel contesto dell’attuale guerra Russo-Ucraina, il tutto presso l’Università degli studi di Padova.
I suoi interessi principali sono i diritti umani, in particolare i diritti delle donne. È proprio il forte interesse per questi temi che l’ha spinta a intraprendere un tirocinio universitario presso il Centro Donna di Padova, durante il quale ha avuto la possibilità di approcciarsi al mondo della scrittura e della creazione di contenuti riguardanti la violenza di genere e le discriminazioni.
In Mondo Internazionale Post Giorgia Milan è un'autrice per l'area tematica di Diritti Umani.
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Economic crisis poverty