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Afghan women's activist fights Taliban and self-doubt

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Joe Stenson, Agence France-Presse

<div class="embed-wrap"><figure data-feedback="fb:likes,fb:comments"><img is="" alt="In this picture taken on February 11, 2023, Afghan women" src="https://sa.kapamilya.com/absnews/abscbnnews/media/2023/afp/03/07/mahbouba-seraj-afp-03072023.jpg" class="fr-fil fr-dib"/><figcaption>In this picture taken on February 11, 2023, Afghan women&#x27;s activist Mahbouba Seraj speaks during an interview with AFP in Kabul. Mahbouba Seraj is a rare dissenting voice in Afghanistan, but the veteran activist has begun to doubt whether the world is listening when she speaks out against the Taliban government&#x27;s abuses. <em>Wakil Kohsar, AFP/File</em></figcaption></figure></div><p>KABUL — Mahbouba Seraj is a rare dissenting voice in Afghanistan, but the veteran activist has begun to doubt whether the world is listening when she speaks out against the Taliban government&#x27;s abuses.</p><p>Risking retribution from her country&#x27;s rulers, Seraj has argued tirelessly against the dramatic spike in restrictions on women&#x27;s freedoms.</p><p>But, facing an international community which she said seems too apathetic to respond, she wonders whether there is any point to her struggle.</p><p>&quot;I&#x27;m still trying to fight and I still want to find an answer for all of this,&quot; the 74-year-old told AFP, her gaze drifting to the window as she looked out at the mountains cradling her Kabul hometown.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s not that it&#x27;s becoming more difficult -- it&#x27;s becoming worthless. That&#x27;s the little fight that I have with (myself),&quot; she said, nervously pulling a lapis lazuli ring off and on her finger over and over.</p><ul class="op-related-articles"><li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/spotlight/12/21/22/the-crackdown-on-afghan-womens-education-rights">Taliban timeline: The crackdown on Afghan women&#x27;s education and rights</a></li></ul><p>Seraj has a role both rarified and agonizing in Afghanistan, where she returned in 2003 after around a quarter century of self-imposed exile during the Soviet occupation, civil war, and first Taliban regime.</p><p>As the niece of former king Amanullah Khan and a high-profile elder stateswoman, she has skirted the Taliban government&#x27;s clampdown on women activists since the group returned to power in August 2021.</p><p>Many have been detained for days or gone into hiding, following a crackdown on protests prompted by the shutdown of girls&#x27; education.</p><p>Seraj flies in and out of the country to meet with diplomats, gives impassioned speeches at the UN, and conducts press interviews without hiding her identity –- so far untroubled.</p><p>It is a high-wire balancing act always threatening to crash down.</p><p>&quot;Every single day that possibility hangs there,&quot; she said. &quot;I don&#x27;t have any trust in anything, that anything will be absolutely 100 percent safe.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It depends on whoever does not like me. And one day, the one that does not like me will kill me, most probably.&quot;</p><div><strong> TALKING TO THE TALIBAN</strong></div><p>Under the ousted US-backed government, Seraj advocated for women&#x27;s participation in the Peace Jirga and the High Peace Council, both efforts to end the conflict with the Taliban through dialogue.</p><p>Now she focuses her work on supporting women with projects in five provinces, including a shelter for dozens of abused women and children and providing cash to female-headed households that have lost their male breadwinner.</p><p>But Seraj never joined sporadic protests that erupted after Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada shut down girls&#x27; secondary schools and banned women from universities.</p><p>For her, engagement with the new administration is necessary -- though she acknowledged that other Afghan women may not agree.</p><p>&quot;Standing in front of the Taliban and telling them that this is what I&#x27;m doing and that&#x27;s how I&#x27;m going to do it,&quot; as she put it.</p><p>Each government edict that curtails women&#x27;s freedoms is a &quot;taxing moment&quot;, Seraj said, but condemnation from other Afghan women for talking to Taliban authorities also takes its toll.</p><p>&quot;It&#x27;s like something that&#x27;s eating inside of me,&quot; she said.</p><div><strong>&#x27;THE POWER OF MY LANGUAGE&#x27;</strong></div><p>Seraj may fiercely defend women&#x27;s rights, but she has lost faith in the international community, even as it professes to do the same.</p><p>In a defeatist speech at the UN Human Rights Council in September last year, the activist raised her hands in frustration.</p><p>&quot;This is the last time I&#x27;m going to come somewhere and talk about this to the world, because I&#x27;m sick and tired of doing it,&quot; she said.</p><p>&quot;How many times am I supposed to yell and scream and say: &#x27;World pay attention to us, we are dying&#x27;?&quot;</p><p>Back in her Kabul office, she told AFP: &quot;I realized that there are really no gains, so I&#x27;m not going to even bother anymore.&quot;</p><p>But in the same breath, she added, &quot;the one thing that I do have, and that&#x27;s the one that I&#x27;ve been using all this time, is the power of my language.&quot;</p><p>It is all a part of the war she is waging with herself.</p><p>&quot;There&#x27;s got to be a -- how shall I say? -- a glimpse,&quot; she said, her eyes drifting to the mountains again.</p><p>&quot;A little light flickering somewhere, something, something,&quot; her fingers rubbing together.</p><p>&quot;Something for all of us to hold on to.&quot;</p><div><strong>© Agence France-Presse</strong></div><figure class="op-interactive"><iframe frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2492522" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div><div><br/></div>

Risking retribution, Mahbouba Seraj has argued tirelessly against the spike in restrictions on women's freedoms in Afghanistan.

Afghan women's activist fights Taliban and self-doubt

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Afghan women's activist fights Taliban and self-doubt

Joe Stenson,

Agence France-Presse

Published Mar 07, 2023 04:50 PM PHT

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Updated Oct 29, 2024 06:43 AM PHT

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