History is Repeating Itself!
This piece has been written by Rahil (pseudonym) who lives in Afghanistan in Persian and has been translated to English by us. You can find the Persian version here.
What has happened in Afghanistan from the first rule of the Taliban to the twenty years after their rule, and the current situation where they are in power again?
“A Thousand Splendid Suns” is the name of a book written by Khaled Hosseini, an Afghan-American writer. In the book, he shows what life was for Afghan women under the first rule of the Taliban. I first read the book before the Taliban took over the country again. Tears would run down my face every time I would read the book and learn about the Taliban’s cruelty and their horrific treatment of women. I would imagine how terrible my life would be in such a situation. Who knew that only a few months after reading the book, I would become a first-hand witness of the Taliban’s tyranny?
In one of the sections of the book, I remember the following story:
As two women and a nine-year-old child walk towards the bus from Herat to Kabul, trying to flee their husbands’ abuse, they are arrested by police because they lack a male chaperon. They are taken to the police office to be investigated and their husband is called in. He takes them back home and inflicts the highest possible degree of abuse on them.
Another interesting point in the book was about a moment involving a family with little resources and opportunities in life:
A woman cooks rice for her husband, and the rice is a little bit hard. Her cruel husband becomes infuriated after chewing on the rice, realizing it is not completely soft. He decides to punish his wife by bringing pebbles from the yard, pushing them into his wife’s mouth, and forcing her to chew on them. The wife starts chewing and breaks her teeth.
This cruelty towards women from the past has returned to Afghanistan. Many oppressive policies are being gradually rolled in, from the forceful closure of girls’ schools to the policing of women’s wear.
They have now forced women to remain at home again. This does not only erase women from public life but also forces them to become homebound prisoners again.
20 May 2022
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