Dr. Sakena Yacoobi is one of Afghanistan’s most honored and deeply committed women leaders. She founded and leads the Afghan Institute of Learning (AIL), an organization that provides education, health, social and economic programming to Afghan women. In August, when the Taliban retook power in her country, she made an urgent plea to me and all other women around the world: "Please do not forget us."

This week, I want to remind us all of the situation that is only getting worse by the day in Afghanistan and that life continues to be challenging for the Afghan families who managed to evacuate. I am working with several of those families in Atlanta and Salt Lake City, and will be writing more about their challenges and how we can all help, but this week, I want to keep my promise to Dr. Yacoobi and remind us all of what life is like for the women and girls and families who are living under Taliban rule.

Sakena Yacoobi with former president of Ireland, women's rights and climate activist Mary Robinson and myself at a Skoll Foundation event several years ago. (Twitter)

“Afghan women’s right activists warned all along that the Taliban’s promises to respect women’s rights were false. They warned in the days after the Taliban took the capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, that the group would intensify their crackdown on women. And that’s what happened.”

— Heather Barr, Human Rights Watch, in The Diplomat

The list of Taliban violations of the rights of women and girls is long and growing. The Taliban appointed an all-male cabinet. They abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which issued the most recent order ['advising' women to cover themselves fully in public]. They banned secondary education for girls and banned women from almost all jobs. They blocked women from traveling long distances or leaving the country alone. They dismantled the system to protect women and girls from violence and made it difficult for them to get health care. They issued new rules for how women must dress and behave. They enforce these rules through violence.

Women – with extraordinary courage – took to the streets in protest. The Taliban beat, threatened, pepper sprayed, abducted, and detained them.
- Read more at The Diplomat :
"Speak Up on Behalf of Afghan Women"

'It's been two months now,
and still schools haven't reopened'

In March, the Taliban forbade all girls from attending high school. CNN's Christiane Amanpour, who is reporting all this week from Afghanistan, interviewed Taliban Deputy Leader and Afghan Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, who implied the reopening of girls’ secondary schools depends on dress codes: “We must establish the conditions, so that we can ensure their honor and security. We are acting to ensure this.”

Amanpour pushed him, saying she had heard that before from Taliban officials, even during the 1990s, and schools never reopened. Secondary schools in Afghanistan are already segregated by gender, so it's not clear what further conditions are needed. He said, “There is no one here who opposes education for women… Very soon, you will hear very good news about this issue.” Amanpour appears skeptical.

As in the 1990s, some women are taking the education of girls into their own hands. The BBC reports that secret schools have been established in people's homes in "a small but powerful act of defiance against the Taliban."

"We do our best to do this secretly," one female teacher tells the BBC, "but even if they arrest me, they beat me, it's worth it."

'An alarming escalation'

Earlier this month, the Taliban imposed one of the harshest restrictions since they seized power, ordering women to cover themselves fully in public — ideally with a traditional burqa. In addition, the decree deputizes male relatives of women making them responsible for ensuring women cover up. If they don't, the men face fines or jail time.

Barr told TIME magazine that the decree is "an alarming escalation.”

“A lot of the media coverage has focused on the restrictions on clothing and women have to cover their faces… What is actually more serious is that the Taliban has said that women shouldn’t be leaving their house unless they really need to and have a specific reason to,” she said in a WhatsApp voice message.

Today a room full of men decided to force all women in Afghanistan to cover every part of their body, including face, with burqas in public. And that they should not leave home at *all* without a legitimate reason for doing so.

Viciously misogynistic, heartbreaking news. pic.twitter.com/OpHrs5jD9G
— Rachel Clarke (@doctor_oxford) May 7, 2022

A growing hunger crisis

For many women in Afghanistan, restrictions separating genders at work, at universities and, most recently in Herat, in restaurants, means that women have lost their jobs or are in danger of losing their jobs in the near future. For many families, that loss of income could exacerbate an already existing hunger crisis in the country. HRW reports that "95 percent of the population does not have enough to eat and 3.5 million children need nutritional support."

CNN's Amanpour talked with UN World Food Programme's Mary-Ellen McGroarty, who told her that “Women are bearing the brunt of hunger in Afghanistan. I meet many young women who are the only breadwinner in the family, and can’t go to work. It is absolutely heartbreaking.”

“They should let us work,” one Afghan widow tells me, as she struggles to feed her family: “I have to work.”

Millions of Afghans are facing dire levels of hunger and poverty – including so many malnourished infants, as we saw firsthand. pic.twitter.com/3RspgiMpCZ
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) May 17, 2022

I will write more about the situation in Afghanistan and the challenges facing women and families who managed to leave in coming weeks. In the meantime, I encourage you to look at the ways you can help below.

Onward!
- Pat

Help Women in Afghanistan

CARE International
The need in Afghanistan is overwhelming and growing fast as conflict escalates and families flee their homes for safety. Millions of Afghans could run out of food before the arrival of winter and a collapsed health care system means that many families lack the medical care that they need. Organizations like CARE are mobilizing to provide food and medical care to Afghan families. Learn more

Human Rights Watch
HRW is tracking what's happening to women in Afghanistan and maintains an updated list of the restrictions placed on women by the Taliban regime. Donate | Learn more

Sakena Fund
Led by Dr. Sakena Yacoobi, the Sakena fund's mission is to empower grassroots community development through support for quality organizations that provide education, health, social and economic programming in Afghanistan. Learn more and donate

Women for Afghan Women
For over 20 years, Women for Afghan Women (WAW) has been a lifeline for women and families in Afghanistan and the United States. They have made over 1.6 million lives better through their programs. Learn more and donate