To mark International Women’s Day, a human rights defender has anonymously shared her story.
Last week I had to attend the funeral of one of our relatives.
On the way, near a crossroad, I saw cars stopped at the traffic light.
Suddenly, I realised Taliban members were there.
They call them Muhtasibeen – I don’t know the exact English word.
They are from the ministry of promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, the ones wearing white coats like doctors.
They were stopping local transportation vehicles and looking inside, especially at the section where women sit. When they saw women without burqas or chadaris, they took the vehicle’s key and ordered the driver to remove everyone.
It was a horrendous moment. I was terrified. I had a hijab and a winter coat, but no burqa or chadari.
My hands were shaking, my body cold, and I didn’t know what would happen. They were checking every car.
I remembered that in the past few weeks, restrictions had sharply increased in Herat province.
These Taliban members in white coats were enforcing strict rules on women, preventing them from walking freely in the streets under the excuse of “improper hijab”.
On 13 January, the Taliban arrested a group of women from crowded areas of the city simply for wearing an Arabic-style hijab.
I also recalled a story from the day before, when a couple was stopped and the husband was beaten because his wife was not wearing a burqa in the street. That memory made me even more afraid. My husband was terrified, too.
I suddenly remembered he had a large winter scarf; the kind Afghan men wear. I took it and covered myself. When the Taliban member looked inside our car, perhaps he thought there were two men and not a woman.
We passed the crossroad safely, but I remained shaken.
When I was a child, I believed white coats symbolised doctors: helping, healing, kindness.
I never imagined they would one day be used to terrify people, to beat and harm them.
‘Endless suffering’
Since the Taliban took over, they have changed the meaning of everything for women.
While the world is busy with other crises, the Taliban use this silence to harass, oppress, and torture women and girls in Afghanistan.
Previously, when there were security problems, police or army forces stood at the crossroads to protect the city.
Now, Taliban trucks and members of the ministry of virtue stand there only to enforce dress codes on women.
It is unbelievable. In my opinion, this is part of a system to erase women from public life.
Recently, they even stopped rickshaws in Herat, claiming it was due to overcrowding.
But I believe the real purpose is to make movement more difficult for women.
At a women’s gathering, one shared her experience. She said she needed some groceries and used to take rickshaws easily.
Now, with rickshaws banned, she waited at a bus stop for a long time. Finally, some taxis came, but the drivers refused to take her unless she paid an extremely high fare for a very short distance.
She ended up walking the whole way, alone and exhausted.
“As soon as I arrived home, I burst into tears. It is painful – being a woman in Afghanistan means endless suffering,” she said.
Another taxi driver told her that the Taliban had instructed them not to take women or girls who were not wearing a chadari or burqa.
Now, even local transportation is barred for women. And yet, despite all this, there are brave women who refuse to obey.
‘A quiet act of resistance’
These Taliban Muhtasibeen who try to scare everyone – they see women carrying burqas but not wearing them.
These women walk freely until they reach the crossroad, then quickly put on the burqa, pass through, and take it off again.
The Taliban see it, but they can’t do anything.
It is a quiet act of resistance, a way of saying: “You may control the streets, but not our spirit.”
These stories make me deeply sad.
I remembered that in early November, the Taliban ordered female teachers, nurses, doctors, and even patients to wear burqas to enter schools and hospitals.
And while all this is happening, the world has turned away.
‘We are forgotten’
A recent letter from the White House makes it painfully clear: the US government has shifted its foreign policy to focus only on its own interests, cutting foreign aid and abandoning global consensus.
The letter proudly announces the end of “endless wars” and a new era of “peace through strength,” but nowhere does it mention the suffering of Afghan women.
Nowhere does it acknowledge the brutality we face. The message is clear: we are no longer a priority. We are forgotten.
Today, Afghanistan may not be a place of benefit or interest for the US and European countries, but they are accountable for shaping history – and our lives – this way.
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Their silence and neglect gave the Taliban the space to erase Afghan women and girls from public life.
The international community is busy with other headlines – Venezuela, Iran, Greenland – and the Taliban are using this silence to tighten their grip.
They are erasing us from public life, from the streets, from education, from hospitals, from transportation.
The world, once full of promises, is now quiet.
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We are still here. We are still resisting. But we are alone. Will the world hear the voices of Afghan women and stand with us?
I urge the international community not to abandon women to the Taliban’s climate of fear.
