BOSTON (WHDH) - Although the Taliban has repeatedly vowed that women’s rights will be protected under their rule, as a way of portraying themselves as more moderate, many Afghan women are expressing their doubt and fear.
In stunning video captured on Monday, hundreds of people were crammed onto an Air Force plan as US troops continued their evacuation efforts in the region. This coming just before one of the militant group’s senior leaders, Amir Khan Muttaqi, arrived back into the country for the first time in twenty years.
In a desperate attempt to flee the country, thousands raced to the airport on Monday. Pashtana Durrani, one of Afghanistan’s leading female educators, said she is in hiding now after groups of insurgents began taking over cities across the country.
“So, you have to understand that there is a common fear among upon women,” said Durrani, Founder and Executive Director of LEARN. “I believe in actions and not words. And right now, me and you, we both know that girls in Herat are unable to access their university-level courses and women are not able to go to their work.”
LEARN is a non-profit organization focused of providing educational opportunities to all children, especially girls, in Afghanistan.
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When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the leaders shut down girls’ schools and banned women from working entirely.
After the US invaded in 2001, those restrictions eased and paved the way for a group of teenage girls to create a robotics team, known as the “Afghan Dreamers.”
The girls first gained attention when they fought for access to participate in the International Robotics Competition held in the US back in 2017.
The Dreamers recently made headlines during the pandemic for building emergency ventilators out of car parts — Their design was inspired by one created at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Now, the award-winning team is in hiding too.
“They are such amazing, symbolic figures of what the possibilities are for Afghan girls,” said human rights lawyer Kimberly Motley who is trying to help the girls escape.
Motley said their futures are bright, but now uncertain.
“My main priority for the Dreamers is that they are protected,” she said. “So, I want to make sure that you know that they are protected no matter what.”
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In a phone interview on Tuesday, Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai called on other countries to take in Afghan refugees.
Yousafzai was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 because she advocated for educating girls.
“I think, first of all, we stand with the women and girls of Afghanistan,” she said. “The safety and protection of Afghanistan people should be the top priority right now.”
Taliban officials are promising safe passage for people who want to leave the country and abstain from committing violence against women.
U.S. Intelligence experts say they too are skeptical of that announcement.
MIT could not be reached for comment.
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