- Tuesday, April 23, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
WITH the US-led western troops fast exiting Afghanistan, the Taliban are resurging and the world is fearing that the country will see dark days once it returns to its pre-October 2001 days when the extremist group ruled supreme.
The rise of the Taliban doesn’t only give rise to fears over a social collapse but also a gender catastrophe. Afghanistan’s women are dreading what a complete Taliban take-over would be like for their future and hence desperate last-ditch efforts are on to save the country.
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One such woman is Salima Mazari. A female district governor in a country where male-dominance is the rule, Mazari is on a mission – recruiting men to fight the extremists.
AFP recently reported about her mission as she explores Afghanistan’s rural district in a pickup truck and a loudspeaker stuck on the vehicle belts out a popular local song boosting love for one’s homeland, hoping to lure brave-hearts who would take on the Taliban in a bid to protect the country.
“Homeland… I sacrifice my life for you,” the song goes and, these days, she is asking her constituents to do just that, the AFP report added.
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The Taliban are overrunning vast areas of Afghanistan – rural and urban – since US president Joe Biden flagged off the withdrawal of American troops from the country where they have remained stuck for almost two decades now, post the 9/11 attacks.
“Taliban are exactly the ones who trample human rights,” Mazari, who is the governor of Charkint, a ruggedly remote district of mountains and valleys and located about an hour from the city of Mazar-e-Sharif in North Afghanistan’s Balkh province, said.
Nearly half of the district that Mazari governs is reportedly already under the Taliban’s control.
The Taliban denied women and girls education and employment when they were in power but even after their downfall in 2001, the attitudes have changed slowly.
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“Socially, people were not ready to accept a female leader,” Mazari told AFP, her head modestly covered with a butterfly-patterned shawl, her eyes hidden behind oversized sunglasses.
There is a religious angle to her ongoing mission. Mazari belongs to the Hazara community, most of whom are Shia Muslims and are considered by the Sunni Taliban as a heretical sect and are regularly attacked by both the Taliban and Islamic State fighters.
In May, a school in capital Kabul was attacked and killed more than 80 girls.
Witnessing the Taliban overrunning her district fast, Mazari is desperately trying to build up a resistance to defend whatever is remaining. She also knows that once the Taliban are fully back in control, they would never tolerate a woman in a leadership position like her.
She has succeeded in roping in hundreds of local people, including farmers, labourers and shepherds and they have sold their property – be it domestic animals or land – to buy weapons to fight the Taliban.
“Our people didn’t have guns but they went and sold their cows, sheep, and even their land, to buy weapons,” Mazari said, adding, “They are on the frontline every day and night without getting any kind of credit or salary.”
Sayed Nazir, the police chief of the district, feels the only reason why the Taliban have not been yet successful in taking over the entire district is Mazari’s resistance force.
“Our achievements are due to our people’s support,” he told AFP, still smarting from a leg wound he received recently fighting the Taliban.
Mazari has so far roped in 600 locals to back the conventional security forces in the district, including the 53-year-old Sayed Munawar, who took up arms after remaining engaged in farming for 20 years.
“We used to be craftsmen and workers until they attacked our villages,” he told AFP, adding, “They took a nearby village and raided their carpets and goods… we were forced to buy weapons and ammunition.”
The team also comprises the youth. Faiz Mohammad, for instance, is only 21 years old and he has put his political science studies on hold to combat the Taliban. He had no idea about fighting three months ago but since then, he has been part of three battles.
In Charkint, villagers still remember how terrible life was under the Taliban before the hardline regime was overthrown by the US-led invasion.
Sensing the danger ahead, Mazari is trying tirelessly to save the remaining part of her bastion. “Women would be banned from educational opportunities and our youth would be deprived of employment,” she told AFP, preparing herself for the tougher fight that lies ahead.
