Bhagyasree Sengupta 

It has been three years since the Taliban took over Kabul and returned to power in Afghanistan changing the lives of countless Afghan women who called the country their home. On 15 August 2021, when India, South Korea and several other nations were celebrating Independence Day, the world saw a country collapse in the hands of a radical group which was notorious for causing disruption in the past.

While Afghanistan continues to face economic hardship despite the vague promises the new regime came with, it was the Afghan women who paid the biggest price when the Taliban came to power. Right from the very beginning, the Taliban imposed a plethora of restrictions on women. From stringent dress codes to no access to education, women in Afghanistan lost their voice in a matter of months.

In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Afghan women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj, recalled the fear people had when the Taliban came back to power and shared the plight of women in Afghanistan. While she urged the international community to sit and talk with the Taliban, she emphasised that nothing has changed in the country in the last three years and the situation of women in Afghanistan remains deplorable. Last year, Seraj was nominated for the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize for her work in Kabul.

‘I was not going to get forced to leave my country’: Seraj

When the world witnessed Kabul fall into the hands of the Taliban, Seraj was one of the first voices it heard when it came to narrating the plight of women in Afghanistan.

“My first thought was fear, a lot of fear because Afghanistan had a history with the first-time of Taliban, which was absolutely horrifying. But the second time I should say that their presence in Afghanistan did not turn out the way the world thought it was going to be, which the rivers of blood were going to be running all over the city of Kabul and other provinces. It was not that,” Seraj told Firstpost.

“I knew what the situation was going to be with women. But I was still hopeful, somewhere deep down I was hoping that maybe this time it would be a bit different. But then unfortunately it wasn’t,” she recalled.

Seraj had to live in exile when the Soviet Union was in power in Afghanistan in the 1970s. She lived in the United States for over two decades and had the country’s citizenship. However, she was determined to stay in Afghanistan this time. She insisted that by staying in Kabul she is doing her “part by just being here”.

“This country of mine has gone to hell and back, at that time, it was the Russians (then part of the Soviet Union) that took over in 1978. And I had to leave the country with my family. I was not in Afghanistan the first time the Taliban were here. I lived in the US for 26 years before coming back to Afghanistan in 2003,” she recalled.

When asked why she didn’t leave the country and sought refuge somewhere else when the Taliban came back, Seraj expressed her will to stay in Afghanistan and continue with her work. “I was not going to do that. Once I was forced to leave my country, and that was the time when the Russians were here. And this time to tell you the honest truth, I was not going to get forced to leave my country,” Seraj emphasised. “So I stayed and I’m still here. And I want to stay here because, you know, there are some women in this country that they might need my presence,” she added.

Women ‘betrayed’ by the world found refuge among themselves

The 76-year-old human rights activist recalled how the Afghan people felt betrayed when they witnessed the United States and delegations from other countries leaving Kabul while it was struggling. “The Afghan people were so betrayed, it’s not even funny, to be honest. And I really do wonder how come the world does not realise what they did to us. But maybe some of them are realising that we were betrayed big time,” Seraj told Firstpost.

Those who didn’t have the means to leave Afghanistan sought refuge in safe houses that propped up across the country. Even Seraj opened her doors to men and women who were struggling at that time. “Safe houses existed in Afghanistan before the Taliban came. It was something that was needed because of the social changes in Afghanistan and the fact that women were always under pressure,” she explained.

“When the Taliban took over, temporary safe houses were created that were mainly for women and their husbands and their children. And it went on for a short period. And we started that also. We gave safe refuge because of the way the Taliban moved this time. They started through the provinces of Afghanistan and finally, they came to Kabul. So Kabul was the last refuge. But we don’t have those anymore. My safe house is still there,” she added.

‘Nothing has changed in three years’

When asked if anything has changed in three years since the Taliban took over, Seraj said that women in Afghanistan still face a “horrendous situation”. “Well, women are facing the most horrendous situation in Afghanistan right now because there is no education for them and they cannot work. They cannot get out of their houses without a man. They cannot travel. They cannot go anywhere. There is no money. There are no jobs,” said the women’s rights activist.

“A country cannot run that way. We are really in a very bad place.”

“Nothing has changed. The public floggings are still going on. I heard just a few days ago some were happening in Kabul also. We were hoping and thinking that the Taliban might go easier on the women of Afghanistan and let the schools do what they are supposed to do, which is to educate the women and the girls. But that did not happen, unfortunately,” she added.

Any room for negotiations with the Taliban?

In the past, Seraj has held talks with the Taliban regime spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid, constantly urging the regime to allow women to receive education in the country. She also requested the international community to hold dialogues with the Taliban and raise concerns about the persecution of women in Afghanistan. However, the needle hasn’t moved much. “We are still looking for and trying to find a way to communicate with the Taliban, to see if they could sit down and talk to the women of Afghanistan and tell them about what is going on and maybe we suggest a few things and give them some ideas,” she said.

“And Afghanistan is a beautiful artwork of all different ethnicities and traditions. All men and women are equal in the eyes of God and Islam. So I don’t know what kind of an interpretation it is that we are not. So I hope things change for women, but so far nothing has changed,” she added.

Seraj expressed frustration over how no women from Afghanistan were able to attend the third UN-held talks on Afghanistan which took place in Doha in July this year. The Doha talks were the first time the Taliban took part in the meeting. In the 2024 Paris Olympics, the Taliban also did not recognise the female Afghan athletes.

“That’s so unfortunate because, you know, 20 million people cannot be disregarded as nothing, whether that’s in the sphere of education or in being an athlete or doing some competition with the world and whatever,” Seraj told Firstpost. “If the Taliban, maybe they think that they can stop the women of Afghanistan from breathing the air, you know, I don’t think that will happen. As far as Doha talks are concerned, hopefully, we will find a way of actually sitting down with them and having a talk because otherwise, we don’t have any other choice. I mean, what is the next choice?” Seraj asked.

“The next choice is for all of us to kill each other, that’s the one other choice that we have. Apart from that, we have to really sit down and talk and discuss what’s going on. That’s the only way,” she added.

The Nobel Peace Prize-nominated activist insisted that Afghanistan will “cease to exist” if things go on the same way. “Afghanistan will cease to exist if this thing goes on the same way. We cannot afford that. We have to change the way we are doing the whole discussion and the whole communication and the world has to help us,” she furthered.

The Nobel debacle

In January this year, while receiving Finland’s International Gender Equality Prize, Seraj recalled how she missed out on winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 2023. “This will make Afghan women so happy,” she initially said in her speech. “I promised myself I wouldn’t mention the Nobel Peace Prize after that it’s my own people that hurt me the most,” she added. When asked why she said that Seraj reiterated the sentiments and said there’s more to the story.

“They held me responsible for something that happened in the history of this country with certain people, especially our Hazara community. And that was not in my hand,” Seraj come from a royal lineage, she belonged to the family of Abdur Rahman Khan, who was the Amir of Afghanistan from 1880 to his death in 1901. While Khan is known for building to state of Afghanistan by uniting the country after years of internal fighting, he is also known for perpetrating the Hazara Genocide.

“I was not the doer of it. It was 130 years ago by a man who happened to be my great-grandfather. And he made Afghanistan a state. When he arrived in Afghanistan, there were a lot of wars and a lot of problems going on with the different tribes that they were running in Afghanistan. And the Hazaras happened to be one of them. So there were killings, there’s no doubt. And it was horrible also,” she said.

“So they held me responsible for that. And they started, you know, this huge campaign against me,” she added. Seraj maintained that she was not the only one who lost the Nobel. The women of Afghanistan lost the prestigious prize as well. “Finally, at the end of the day, I did not win the Nobel Peace Prize. But it’s not me that did not win. It was the women of Afghanistan that did not win,” she emphasised.

When asked what she thinks about some of the people calling her “Taliban lobbyist”, Seraj reiterated calls for holding dialogue to bring change. “If you don’t want to talk to the people that you’re having problems with, what is the next way to make them (Taliban) understand what they are doing is not right? If we fight instead, we are going to die for no reason. How can we just kill each other, but not talk to each other? I don’t, I don’t believe in that,” she said.

“We should become intelligent. We are going to fight for our existence. If we don’t do that, we are doomed. And that’s something I don’t want,” she added.

Clutching on to hopes of winning the battle she has been fighting for decades

Seraj, who is in her 70s has been fighting for the rights of women in Afghanistan for decades. When asked if the current situation makes her frustrated, Seraj insisted that she would fight for Afghan women till the very end. “It makes me extremely frustrated. Especially now that after three years, I really don’t have a single thing in my hand that I can say to my sisters. But at the same time, I cannot give up because as long as there is life, there is hope and there is God. I do believe in my Allah and I know he will look after us and I know he will give us an answer, that will happen. Maybe it will not happen while I’m alive. I might not see it, but it will happen. So that’s why I keep on doing it until the last breath in my body,” she furthered.

When asked what the international community could do to help the women in Afghanistan, Seraj lamented that the world could have done a lot. Well, the international community could have done a hell of a lot more in the beginning and the international community can still do a hell of a lot now, too. But it all depends on the international community,” she remarked.

“We do need the support of every single woman in the world from everywhere, not only for Afghanistan, but all of us women for each other, because if we don’t look after each other, nobody else will.”

“The way the world is, it’s not going to last only with Afghanistan’s problem or the problem. Well, right now there is war in Gaza, so you can imagine what will be happening afterwards. We can all get together and maybe we can help each other in a necessary way. We can we can alleviate the hurt and the pain that we have,” she insisted.

When asked if she would encourage women to stay in Afghanistan, Seraj told Firstpost that she could not do something like this, given the current circumstances. “I cannot say that to them, honestly, I cannot ask that anymore, although in the beginning there were so many cases that the women were leaving the country. It’s entirely up to them, whatever they decide to do. But to the women and the world, what I’m trying to say is that, please, let’s stop. Let’s stop being so oblivious to everybody else’s needs and respect each other’s existence in the world,” the Afghan women’s rights activist asserted.

The West should not think that the East shouldn’t exist the same way, and vice versa. There can’t be one religion in the whole world. We all have our religions and we should be free to practise,” she added. Seraj also took time to point out how refugees and immigrants are actually giving new life and “new blood” to Europe. “We all are going to be this mix of colours, mix of cultures. What is this fear that the world has from each other, that the East is going to eat the West or Muslims are going to eat everybody else? No. Everybody needs a life,” she explained.

“More than 40,000 people are dead in Gaza. This is not acceptable. So many people are away from Afghanistan, they should have been in my country, doing the work for our country,” she added.

Hope for future

Seraj is the executive director of the Afghan Women’s Skill Development Centre, during the conversation with Firstpost, she explained what the organisation does. “Well, the organisation is doing anything pertaining to women and bringing the women to a place where they could have a better life,” she averred.

“If it’s for educating them on agriculture, whether it’s about talking to the different provinces and people in the different villages to let their children go to school or to have a better life or to do some handicraft like arts that they have in the area or learn something that will be useful for them. We are doing that,” she added.

Finally, Seraj has one message to the women who are fighting for their rights in Afghanistan. “I’m telling the Afghan women, hang in there, sweethearts. Nothing lasts forever. This shall change, too,” she concluded.