Afghan ladies convey shock, worry, defiance underneath new Taliban rule

Women of all ages and women in Afghanistan are struggling with a deeply uncertain and scary long term with the Taliban in control of the place pursuing the collapse of a U.S.-backed governing administration and the exit of U.S. troops.

Afghan women of all ages fear that their rights will be constrained, as they have been 20 years ago when the Taliban last thoroughly dominated Afghanistan.

The Hill spoke to a range of Afghan gals who questioned that their names be withheld for fear of the Taliban focusing on them and their people and colleagues. Humanitarian teams also presented The Hill with specific accounts of females in Afghanistan.

The girls who spoke to The Hill expressed shock, panic, frustration and defiance at the swiftly altering natural environment in their place.

They want to make very clear that Afghan women — collaborating in modern society as business people, athletes, politicians, law enforcement, teachers, artists and journalists, among the other professions — had to struggle for those people freedoms inside of a stringent, male-dominated modern society even after the Taliban was ousted by U.S. forces in 2001. 

“People want to have an understanding of, we fought for individuals rights,” 1 Afghan woman explained to The Hill. “Despite the U.S. currently being there, we nevertheless fought for them in the patriarchal method to be ready to stand up to them and inform them ‘this is our right.’”

The female warned versus the U.S. and worldwide community placing belief in the Taliban’s statements. 

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Musicians faced death under Taliban rule. They may be silenced once more

The capital’s morning rush hour is a discordant backdrop for the workshop of Izzatullah Neamat. But walk down an alley, sidestep a sewage canal, and there he is: ensconced in the rabble among dozens of rubabs — an ancient instrument that resembles a lute — that have become his life’s work and family legacy.

Here on the outskirts of Kharabat, the city’s oldest quarter and the onetime home of its musicians and artists, the 40-year-old Neamat is a keeper of an Afghan tradition that was all but stamped out in the chaos of war and the harsh rule of religious extremists who — hearing sin instead of song — outlawed music and threatened with death its practitioners.

Izzatullah Neamat carves a block of wood to make a traditional Afghan rubab.

Izzatullah Neamat works on carving down a block of wood to make a traditional Afghan rubab in his workshop in Kabul on April 29, 2021.

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

And it’s set to happen again. U.S. and NATO forces plan to depart the country in as little as a few weeks, leaving behind an Afghan state that few believe can withstand a Taliban onslaught. In recent days, the group has overrun dozens of districts, while its spokesmen discuss controlling and imposing its harsh religious vision on the country with an air of inevitability.

Among the many losers of such a takeover are instrument makers like Neamat, as well as the musicians he serves. For them, there appears to be one solution:

Faraar,” said Neamat. Escape.

He sat on