JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban on Sunday. Here, a female law student in Kabul offers her observations and perspective. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding her name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.
The universities are closed not only in Kabul but also all around the country. Public and private offices shut their doors. People, especially those who are educated – students, particularly girls – are scared and trying to find a way out of the country. Flights in Kabul are canceled and planes only carry citizens of other countries to their home country. In some provinces, it is reported that the Taliban are searching for girls and women between 12-45 of age for their forced marriages. I contacted a friend in Herat province yesterday. Herat has been under Taliban control for more than a week now, she said that women are not allowed out and were forced to return home when they wanted to attend university and offices. I personally think Law major is no more a field of study for students, particularly women. There is no hope that there will be any education system for women, as the Taliban has shown that women have no place in their government.
Fear has covered everywhere, especially in Kabul. I am scared to go out of my house and have not been out for two days; many have not been out for a month in other provinces and this is every girl’s experience now all around the country.
Academic achievements are fading away. I have an initiative that fundraises for the education of internally displaced girls who have been deprived of edcation. I have been working closely with them since 3 years ago. Now not only my students but also myself is deprived of education and looking for a way out of Kabul.
It is difficult to admit, and I cannot hold my tears while writing this, that the 20 years of my 22 year age that I remember, and during which I tried to educate girls and get education is now turned to ashes. There is no future for all of us, particularly female lawyers in Afghanistan.
