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"Everything Afghan women do this week in Tirana, Albania is forbidden to them at home. Arguing. Laughing. Speaking loudly in public. Singing. Wearing brightly coloured clothes. Showing their faces. All haram according to the men from Kandahar who currently hold power. As the Taliban move to erase women across Afghanistan, in Tirana Afghan women are asking, how do we fight back?"

Lindsey Hilsum.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵59

https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/09/silenced-afghan-women-raise-their-voices-in-hope/


"A summit on Afghan women’s rights is taking place in the Albanian capital Tirana this week. The gathering comes just two weeks after the Taliban’s “vice and virtue” laws banned women in Afghanistan speaking in public.

The All-Afghan Women’s Summit is in stark contrast to a United Nations meeting in Doha, Qatar at the end of June on the future of Afghanistan which excluded women at the insistence of the Taliban."

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵58

https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2024/09/bread-work-freedom/


"After a campaign involving Afghan women and international human rights organisations, the UN special rapporteur has recommended that the UN codify the crime against humanity of “gender apartheid” in international law.

Countries must heed this call, and our government must do everything within its sphere of influence to ensure that this happens."

#FreeAfghanWomen
#EndGenderApartheid

🧵57

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/sep/08/the-observer-view-on-afghanistan-britain-and-the-us-are-complicit-in-the-talibans-oppression-of-women


If you're finding this thread heavy going, you don't need to tell me. I know. I'm going to take a break and recharge for a bit.

Nobody is predicting the Taliban will fall in the next couple of weeks, so, if I miss the scoop, I'll just have to get over it. I think I'd cope with that.

I'll leave you with this bit of light in the darkness, it's all about the secret undercover beauticians of Kabul.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵56

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/8/17/an-island-of-freedom-inside-the-secret-beauty-salons-of-afghanistan


Reporting accurately from Afghanistan is nearly impossible, and it's not just the restrictions.
Sometimes what the Taliban say is worse than what they do, sometimes what they do is worse than what they say. What they say and what they do also changes day to day depending on their ideological whims.

Am I bringing a complete and accurate picture on women's rights in Afghanistan here on this thread?

Hell No. I'm just trying my bestest.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵55

https://www.rferl.org/amp/afghanistan-taliban-press-freedom-journalists-media/32925395.html


"If the international community and the UN want to be useful, let the women of Afghanistan directly talk to the Taliban.
This is something that the leaders of the gender-apartheid regime fear the most."

Fawzia Koofi,
Politician and women’s rights activist who was the first woman vice-president of the Afghan parliament and chair of its women’s affairs and human rights commission.

#FawziaKoofi
#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵55

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/27/un-doha-summit-taliban-afghan-women-rights


Fawzia Koofi.

I always need a minute when I hear that name.

She's described in the article above as an Afghan human rights activist. There's nothing wrong with this description. It is a fair summary of who she is right now.

The part that I can't get my head round is that 3 years ago she was the Vice President of Afghanistan.

#FawziaKoofi
#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵54

https://www.forbes.com/sites/stephaniefillion/2022/09/01/one-year-after-leaving-afghanistan-fawzia-koofi-is-determined-to-go-back/


The Taliban have issued a law against women in Afghanistan laughing anywhere they can be heard by a man.

I have a wild theory about this. Hear me out.

Do you think, maybe, the Taliban might be afraid of being laughed at by women?

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵53

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/26/taliban-bar-on-afghan-women-speaking-in-public-un-afghanistan


In Afghanistan, the new 'Vice and Virtue' laws against women are seen as a sign that the Taliban are feeling increasingly bold after they were allowed to go to a U.N. meeting on the condition that women's rights weren't discussed and no representatives for Afghan women were allowed to attend.

They think they can get away with it because they are getting away with it. The international community are letting them get away with it.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵52

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/jun/21/shutting-afghan-women-out-of-key-un-conference-to-appease-taliban-a-betrayal


"I believe this is a continuation of the Taliban's intimidation and oppression of women - from the way we're dressed to how we appear in public, how we talk, how we even laugh. It says that women shouldn't laugh very loud, and the laugh of women should not be heard by a man, which is extremely horrifying to actually see that this is actually codified in law."

Azadah Raz Mohammad,
Afghan Legal Advisor,
Atlantic Council.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵51

https://www.npr.org/2024/08/24/nx-s1-5087505/taliban-codifies-law-dictating-how-men-and-women-appear-in-public#:~:text=The%20law%20demands%20women%20must,it%20to%20me%20as%20horrific.


More details of last weeks 'Vice and Virtue' laws from the Taliban are emerging.

They have banned all women in Afghanistan from laughing, either in public, or anywhere a man might be able to hear them.

Don't Laugh.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵50

https://www.gzeromedia.com/news/watching/un-taliban-criminalizes-sights-and-sounds-of-women


Taliban fantasy collides with reality.
Again

The Taliban are getting really busy spouting loads of dangerous nonsense while abandoning their promise to reopen girls schools. They are now even challenging people to prove women's education is compatible with Islam.

They seem to have forgotten that the world's oldest university was founded by a Muslim woman in the 9th century.

Lads, what are you doing? This is not Islam.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵47

https://www.eurasiareview.com/31122017-fatima-al-fihri-the-lady-who-founded-worlds-first-university-oped/


Did you know the first university in the world was founded by a Muslim woman?

Of course you didn’t.

#AfghanGirlsVoices
#LetAfghanGirlsLearn
#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵46

https://qarawiyyinproject.co/2022/01/31/women-and-education-in-the-historical-muslim-world/


"Addressing the ongoing ban on women's education in Afghanistan, the Taliban stated that those lacking religious authority should refrain from positioning themselves as scholars on the matter. "We have demonstrated that our decrees are in full accordance with Islam and Sharia law," the minister declared. He further emphasised that the Taliban's policies on women's education are not in conflict with "Islamic laws and Afghan traditions."

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵46

https://www.afintl.com/en/202408253012


"Courageous Afghan girls are stepping up to demand an end to the Taliban’s gender discrimination.

Underground schools, local home schooling, and remote learning are all playing their part in ensuring schooling can continue. In 2023, Education Cannot Wait’s investments in Afghanistan reached nearly 200,000 girls and boys through community-based education programmes."

Gordon Brown

#AfghanGirlsVoices
#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵45

https://www.scotsman.com/news/opinion/columnists/gordon-brown-scottish-initiative-must-be-start-of-a-worldwide-effort-to-end-worst-violation-of-girls-rights-4750561


Taliban Vice and Virtue Laws

"It is mandatory for a woman to veil her body at all times in public and that a face covering is essential to avoid temptation and tempting others.
Women should veil themselves in front of all male strangers to avoid being corrupted. A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public.

It is forbidden for women to look at men they are not related to by blood or marriage and vice versa."

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵44


In Afghanistan, the Taliban's new decrees on the 'promotion of virtue' are silencing women's voices.

IT'S NOT A METAPHOR!

It's the new law. Literally. As in literally.
Women's voices are no longer allowed to be heard in public.

"A woman’s voice is deemed intimate and so should not be heard singing, reciting, or reading aloud in public."

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵43

https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-vice-virtue-laws-women-9626c24d8d5450d52d36356ebff20c83


This seems a good time to make something crystal clear.

If I am criticising the Taliban, I am criticising the Taliban.

This has nothing to do with Islam.

There's a zero tolerance policy on Islamophobia here. Don't even think about replying with your tropes and thinly veiled comments. I can spot you all a mile off.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵42


"The Taliban uses Islam as a justification for their treatment of women."

“All countries within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are unanimous that this has nothing to with Islam, that this is alien to the concept of Islam, and the first word of the Holy Qur’an is ‘Read'.

We continue to press the interim government in Afghanistan to live up to their promises and grant women their right to education."

Bhutto Zardari,
Pakistan Foreign Minister.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵41


There is only one thing that is very simple in Afghanistan. The Taliban's ideology is so far removed from Islam that it's not Islam they are preaching. It's something else entirely.

The Taliban's treatment of women and girls has even united all 57 varieties of the Muslim countries that make up the Organization of Islamic Cooperation . They say it very clearly. It goes against all Islamic values.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵40

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2265201/world


So, to answer the question about whether men could do more to fight for women's rights in Afghanistan, first you have to answer some other questions.

What, exactly, do you want them to do?

What, exactly, would you do?

I keep telling you. If you want simple answers about Afghanistan, you won't find them here.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵39


Ismail Mashal's treatment by the Taliban for standing up for women's rights in Afghanistan is an extreme but also fairly typical example of the men who have tried to stand up for women against the Taliban.

I could show you more cases like Ismail Mashal's, but they always go the same way. Men who stand up for women's rights in Afghanistan are dealt with even more harshly than the women as they are seen as even more of a threat to the Taliban's rule.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵38


Ismail Mashal has been in no condition to talk publically ever since his release from jail in Afghanistan in March 2023.

There were reports that he was hospitalised with physical and mental health problems about a month after he left prison. I'm still searching for any updates.

What did the Taliban do to him?

#IsmailMashal
#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵37

https://www.afintl.com/en/202304282992


While handing out his own collection of books to women on the streets of Kabul, Ismail Mashal was arrested, beaten and imprisoned by the Taliban in January 2023.

He left prison in March 2023. His colleague Farhad Farzli said:

"Ismail is fine and in good health. However, he is not in a condition to talk at the moment."

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵37

https://www.dw.com/en/taliban-detains-afghan-activist-who-ralied-for-womens-education-rights/a-64608445


No Afghan man fought harder for Afghan women's rights than Ismail Mashal.

He went live on Afghan television and ripped up all his educational diplomas, saying they were worthless in Afghanistan if women couldn't get them too.

He closed his university, saying if women can't receive an education, nobody can.

He took to the streets of Kabul with a cart full of his own book collection, handing them out to every woman and girl he could find.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵36

https://amu.tv/34520/


Could the men in Afghanistan do more to help the plight of women in Afghanistan?

I am that stupid that I will ask this question, but I'm not that stupid that I think I can answer it.

What I will say is that, in the beginning, plenty of them tried.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵35

https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-taliban-ban-women-university-protests-men/32199112.html


It may well come as a surprise to some of you to see an Afghan man celebrating strong women on International Women's Day in 2018.

It will be much less of a surprise to those of you who have seen my long thread on Afghan photographer Shah Marai, Democracy and Women's Rights in Afghanistan.

(Shameless self promotion in link below 👇)

#FreeAfghanWomen
#ShahMarai
#Afghanistan

🧵34

https://mastodonapp.uk/@ProjectFearlessness/110762255453800060


I'll put this diplomatically. Afghan men are like all men. Fucking awful.

The worst are no worse than the worst ones you find in every country in the world. Take a good look around you.

There are also good men in Afghanistan. Take one of Afghan photographer Shah Marai's last posts on Twitter. In 2018, between the reports of the ever increasing suicide bombs in Kabul that would soon claim his life, he wrote simply:

Happy International Women's Day to all Strong Women.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵34
Twitter screenshot. It says what it says in the main post


This thread is about Afghan women and girls rights, but where are the men in all this?

I know at least some of you are thinking all the men in Afghanistan are loving Taliban rule, cheering on the patriarchy as they delight in watching women go right back to medieval times.

You're wrong. Not completely wrong, but wrong. I'll keep saying it. If you want simple answers about Afghanistan, you won't find them here.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵33


"U.N. Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett has been banned from coming to Afghanistan. He was assigned to spread propaganda against Afghanistan. He is not someone we believe in."

Taliban spokesman.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵30
https://www.afintl.com/en/202408219084


"In Afghanistan, with each generation, there will be fewer women with educational backgrounds enabling them to take up roles outside the home.
Afghanistan is losing more than its future health-care workers, with the concomitant risks to women and girls.
The Taliban’s institutionalized gender oppression is depriving Afghanistan of its future women engineers, journalists, lawyers, biologists, politicians and poets.”

Richard Bennett,
UN Special Rapporteur

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵29


"The Taliban have already murdered lawyers, activists, students, police and other women, as well as subjecting them to torture and abuse. Concerns that they will resume public stonings persist. But there are many other ways to take women’s lives.

Snatch away all hope and some will conclude that there is no way to go on."

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵28

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/20/the-guardian-view-on-afghanistan-gender-apartheid-dont-embolden-the-taliban?CMP=share_btn_url


The Afghan refugee women who arrived in Scotland today to study medicine were helped and funded by the Linda Norgrove Foundation.

Info and donation opportunity below.

#FreeAfghanWomen

#26

https://lindanorgrovefoundation.org/what-we-do/where-your-money-goes/


Here's a photograph that will brighten your day.

This is Scottish Refugee Council head Sabir Zazai, who came to the country as a refugee from Afghanistan in 1999.

He's standing in sunny Edinburgh, with some of the 20 refugee women from Afghanistan who have just arrived on visas to study medicine at Scottish universities.

If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.

#FreeAfghanWomen
#RefugeesWelcome
#Scotland

🧵25
Photo as described in main post.


"Even the sun came out today to greet the 20 female medical students that arrived in Scotland from Afghanistan, thanks to the efforts of Linda Norgrove Foundation and Scottish universities.

Through their forthcoming achievements, the girls will prove the Taliban ban on education very wrong."

Sabir Zazai,
Scottish Refugee Council.

#FreeAfghanWomen
#LetAfghanWomenLearn
#RefugeesWelcome

🧵24

https://www.thetimes.com/article/ae88e9c1-204a-4ac6-bc2d-0cdaecb0a976?shareToken=968c1404ddf0ba13cc93f3bc1d37254d


I know. I thought that last post could have gone better too.

Who was the 'first lady' of Afghanistan in 1919?

That's easy, that was Queen Soraya. She was everywhere. She was belatedly on the cover of Time magazine woman of the year 1927.

Who is the 'first lady' of Afghanistan in 2024?

Hmm, well it's thought Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has two wives but nobody's really sure. They haven't made any public announcements and as for names and photos, forget it.

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵22
Cover of Time magazine with an illustrated portrait of queen Soraya of Afghanistan, who was Time woman of the year, 1927


So, let's join the Taliban in their celebrations of Afghan Independence Day!

Here's to 105 years of women in public life in Afghanistan!

#FreeAfghanWomen
🧵21

1919 2024
Portrait photo of queen Soraya of Afghanistan in 1919. She has a modern 'bob' haircut, is wearing a tiara and necklace, and an embroidered off the shoulder silk dress
Black square to represent Afghan women in public like 2024


In terms of women's rights, The Taliban are the polar opposite to the modernising political forces that led Afghanistan to independence in 1919.

We know the Taliban leaders have wives, but do we see them ? Do we know their names?

Now let's look at Queen Soraya of Afghanistan 1919-1929. She was a pioneer. She brought about change. She wrote the book* on gender equality in Afghanistan.

(*technically a monthly magazine, but you get the idea.)

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵20

https://www.arabnews.com/node/1732666/amp


The Taliban should celebrate Afghanistan Independence Day. The end of British colonial rule in 1919 is important.

It led to-

*End of mandatory hijab
*Full female participation in society
*Votes for women
*Female MPs
*Full education for girls.
*University education for women.
*Equal employment for women.

None of these rights for women are now available under Taliban rule in Afghanistan in 2024.

You don't mention this bit though, do you lads?

#FreeAfghanWomen

🧵19

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/womens-rights-afghanistan-history


If you managed to read the whole of the article on the last post of this thread, you did well. I warned you, reading about LGBT rights is a whole other level of harrowing.

Let's move on to what is considered, almost, as light relief in Afghanistan. This week the Taliban are celebrating the 105th anniversary of Afghan Independence.

Are they having a laugh? Are they sure they really want us to remember events in 1919?

OK. We will. Next post.

🧵18

#FreeAfghanWomen

https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-yaqoob-anniversary-anglo-afghan-treaty/33083344.html