The assassination of former female Afghan lawmaker Mursal Nabidaza is a matter of serious concern. Though Taliban authorities have put the blame on unknown assailants but the fact remains that Afghanistan has been turned in a Dante’s Inferno for women since the Taliban take-over of Kabul in August 2021.

The 32-years old Mursal was the Member of Afghan Parliament during the Ashraf Ghani Government before the withdrawal of coalition forces from Afghanistan. Mursal Nabizada, 32, had been elected as a member of the national parliament before the Islamist Taliban seized power from the internationally backed Afghan government in August 2021 as all U.S.-led NATO troops withdrew.

A Kabul police spokesman, Khalid Zadran, said that a brother of the slain parliamentarian was also injured in the attack, which took place early Sunday. Zadran said a “serious” investigation into the incident was under way to apprehend and bring the killers to justice. Nabizada’s relatives have made it clear that neither she nor her family had any personal enmity with anyone.

Though the common woman has been the subject of harsh rules including lashes and other violent rules under the Taliban regime, but this is the for the first time that an empowered woman of the caliber of politician has been murdered during the current Taliban government. Nabizada had been very critical of the Taliban rule and used to advocate women’s rights.  She had dedicated her life to fighting for women’s rights. That’s why she chose to stay back in her country when Taliban took reign of the government as she wanted to fight for the rights of women of her country.

Her killings in such a coldblooded manner should be investigated at international level as women in Afghanistan are being subjected to all sorts of HR violations. The world nations have denounced her brutal murder but mere denouncement cannot serve the purpose. Time has come world should take concrete steps collectively to safeguard the rights of Afghan women, who have been subjected to all sorts of human rights violations in Taliban regime. If a woman of the caliber of Mursal is killed like this, one can imagine the fate of the common women in Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, Taliban have gradually confined women to their homes and their men-only government has stopped women from taking part in almost all walks of public life.  Last year, bodies of four female rights activists were found in controversial circumstances in the PD-1 of Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif province. 

This latest together with the earlier Taliban policies frame to segregate women from public life are going to have strong consequences for the Taliban government as the world community including the Muslim world are not accept  the Taliban stance on women’s issues. With the passage of time, the living conditions further deteriorate for Afghan women under the Taliban regime, who have been resorting to preventing women from being a part of public life and segregating them on almost every front. At times, they fire pepper spray at a groups of women protesting women, demanding for provision of fundamental rights like work and education.

This really disturbed the entire world in the wake of the Taliban’s repeated promises of an inclusive government and what they claimed to be pursuing more moderate form of Islamic rule than when they were in power in Afghanistan twenty years ago.  Every day, new stories of women’s rights violations emerge. For instance Taliban announced to allow women to get education but as the universities are reopening for the first time since the Taliban came to power, females have been separated from their male counterparts by curtains down the middle of the classroom. They are also restricted to move freely within the premises of the campuses. 

A new dress code for women who go to universities in Afghanistan is also announced by Taliban, which requires them to wear niqab as well beside wearing all-covering cloth namely burqa. Women in Herat, who protested against Taliban dress code and restrictions, were dismissed from their jobs while women were also reportedly expelled from banks as they were mingling with their male counterparts.

Taliban also allowed female health workers to come to their jobs but when some women reported at the job without male members of the family, they were sent back home.  It may be mentioned here that when Taliban last ruled from 1996-2001, they had barred girls from school and women from university and work. This time, the women’s education do not came under complete ban, but even then the extensive and damaging exclusions are nothing short of a ban.  Definitely women will also be barred from top positions and will only get lower grade jobs

Published in The Daily National Courier, January, 16 2023

Like Business on Facebook, follow @DailyNCourier on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.