I am a young woman in Afghanistan, and nothing shocks me anymore

We currently live in a world where we see a lot of things that don’t make sense. It has nothing to do with the logic. But it’s still happening. After all, the world that we live in is not a heaven.

Or maybe it’s not the world – maybe the world is not a cruel place for all people, but for an Afghan girl, it is. After all, she didn’t have the chance to see how vast the world is and how much is there to be experienced and explored as a young woman. For her, the world is the land that she lives in, or no, maybe even the house that she is locked in. For someone in a cage, there’s no world, no imagination.

I live in a country, Afghanistan, where I ask these questions every day from myself. Will human logic accept this? Actually – no one is thinking about whether it is logical, the only thing is that it’s happening.

New laws are passed brutally day by day, by the people who claim they know everything, and think that they are the representatives of all people in the country. Most of these laws only have one aim – putting more restrictions on the already devastated lives of women in Afghanistan.

Dear reader, you may want to know more details. In August 2024, the Taliban passed their first book of law. It was passed by the most narrow-minded establishment of the Taliban’s government, Amr bilMaruf. We girls have nicknamed it The Enemy of The Women. The law was brutally insane, shocking, and disappointing.

But for me, it was nothing. I was too tired to think about it anymore.

For a long time, I had stopped watching the news, though our International Relations professor was always suggesting that a girl who studies politics should always watch the news, back in my university days.

Actually, there’s nothing that can shock me in Afghanistan anymore. The laws explicitly stated that the entire body of women should be covered, and the voices of women shouldn’t be heard outside. 

The most recent law is that adult women’s voices shouldn’t be heard by other women or girls. 

We know where these restrictions lead. We are moving to a society where women aren’t a part of it, a society that is full of censorship and fear. Maybe we live in the world that George Orwell was anticipating in his novel 1984. The only difference for Afghan women is that at least women in his book had the right to work and get out of house.

But still, I see determination in the eyes of women that are forced to be covered outside. I hear the most beautiful wishes and hopes for the future from girls whose voices are banned from being heard in public.

And still, we believe that goodness will win.

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Written by

B.N.

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