Last Monday, November 25, was the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women. The origins of November 25th go back to 1960, when the three Mirabal sisters from the Dominican Republic were violently assassinated for their political activism. The sisters, known as the “Unforgettable Butterflies”, became a symbol of the crisis of violence against women in Latin America. November 25th was the date chosen to commemorate their lives and promote global recognition of gender violence, and has been observed in Latin America sins the 1980s.

Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. According to UN women, at least one in three women in the world has suffered from violence, usually by someone known to her. In many societies, bias in the legal system and community attitudes add to the trauma. 

Unfortunately, in Afghanistan women still fall victim to cruel violence. As a result, last Monday, November 25, Afghan police reported the tragic death of two women in Baghlan province. According to them, a man killed his daughter-in-law and granddaughter there. In addition, two more deaths were reported from Logar province. The reports said that two women were found dead in Barakibarak District of Logar province on Monday morning. Police said that the women were hanged on a tree while being naked.

Nowadays, Afghanistan’s newspapers are replete with sad stories of Afghan women. Radio Azadi broadcast a story of an Afghan woman by the name of Akhtara. According to it, Akhtara who mothers four children was not able to find a job. She and her six-year-old child, Gul Pari, beg beside a crumbled castle of Darul Aman in Kabul Southeast. Her tragedy began when she was asked by a man for getting married. When she turned down his proposal, the suitor sprayed poisonous acid to her face. The report explains that Akhtara was married to an old man when she was only ten. Her husband, Amanullah, get killed by his jealous nephew and the murderer proposed Akhtara, but she refused saying that she would never get married to her husband’s murderer. The murderer fled to Pakistan and after three years he returned and sprayed acid on Akhtara’s face. Now she suffers from severe economic strains. Moreover, she wishes that one could pay for her face injury to get it healed.

The stories of Aisha and Sahar Gul are also haunting in minds of Afghan women. Sahar Gul, had been married at the age of 12 – her husband was considerably older – then brutally assaulted by him and his family. She was rescued by Afghan Police, in 2012, from a cellar where had been imprisoned and starved. Her injuries were horrific – her nails had been pulled out and she had been burned with cigarette butts. She almost died. In a video report by CNN, Sahar describes the abuses against her, explaining how she was tortured with hot pokers and tied up in the basement by her husband’s family. She says, “When they put electric shocks on my feet, I felt like I was going to die at that moment. I screamed and that’s how our neighbors realized there was something happening. For one day and night I was unconscious, feeling dead.” Her story shocked people around the world and led to outrage in Afghanistan, where treatment of women is always under scrutiny.

Aisha Mohammadzai is also an Afghan woman whose mutilated face appeared on the cover of Time magazine in summer 2010.

In a practice known as baad, Aisha’s father promised her to a Taliban fighter when she was 12 year old as compensation for a killing that a member of her family had committed. She was married at 14 and subjected to constant abuse. At 18, she fled the abuse but was caught by police, jailed, and returned to her family. Her father returned her to her in-laws. To take revenge on her escape, her father-in-law, husband, and three other family members took Aisha into the mountains, cut off her nose and her ears, and left her to die. Aisha was later rescued by aid workers and the US military. Some sources disputed the role of any members of the Taliban in her mutilation at the time it happened.

Aisha was featured on the August 2010 cover of Time magazine and in a corresponding article, “Afghan Women and the Return of the Taliban.” The cover image generated enormous controversy. The image and the accompanying cover title, “What Happens if We Leave Afghanistan,” fueled debate about the merits of the Afghan War.

This question still arises in the minds of Afghan women that what happens if foreign forces leave Afghanistan? It is feared that Taliban-style government will be replaced with a relatively democratic government. Then, Afghanistan will retrace its history which is replete with war, violence and bloodshed.  Hence, the withdrawal of foreign forces is one of the most worrisome issues for Afghan women.

The attitude of Taliban towards women is crystal clear. Afghan women suffered severely during the Taliban’s regime. They were widowed, flogged in desert court, imprisoned within the four walls of their homes and were not allowed to join social, educational, cultural, or political arenas at all.

I justify them to be worried. Even after the collapse of Taliban’s regime, we can see their cruelty towards women. As a result, last year, two female acting directors of women’s affairs in Laghman province were assassinated. This August, a female member of parliament was kidnapped; a senator was injured in an ambush of her car and her 8-year-old daughter was killed. Soon after, the country’s top female police officer was fatally shot as she left her home.

Hence, considering such incidents, Afghan women are right to worry. In case of returning Taliban to power, the women will again be imprisoned behind the closed door of home. Moreover, they will severe the same as they did at the time of their regime.