When Rahima Jami heard that the Americans and the Taliban were close to forging a peace deal after nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan, she thought about her feet.
Jami, now a lawmaker in the Afghan Parliament, was a school principal back in 1996, when a radical Islamist group called the Taliban seized power in the country. The Taliban forced her out of her job and told her that women had to wear a burqa—a head-to-toe cloak—when leaving their homes. One hot day at the market, her feet were showing from underneath her burqa, so the religious police beat them with a horse whip until she could barely stand.
Even all these years later, when Jami thinks of that time she was beaten, she says, “I remember it and I actually feel faint.”
Many Afghan women have similar horror stories of how they were treated when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001. Now Afghan women have something new to fear: the possibility that American troops will leave Afghanistan as part of a peace agreement.
After nearly two decades of war in Afghanistan, the United States and the Taliban are close to securing a peace deal. When Rahima Jami heard that, she thought about her feet.
Jami, now a lawmaker in the Afghan Parliament, was a school principal back in 1996. That year, a radical Islamist group called the Taliban seized power in the country. The Taliban forced her out of her job. They also told her that women had to wear a head-to-toe cloak called a burqa when leaving their homes. One hot day at the market, her feet were showing from underneath her burqa. In response, the religious police beat her feet with a horse whip until she could barely stand.
Even all these years later, when Jami thinks of that time she was beaten, she says, “I remember it, and I actually feel faint.”
Many Afghan women have similar horror stories of how they were treated when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan, from 1996 to 2001. Now Afghan women have something new to fear. Anxiety has grown over the possibility that American troops will leave Afghanistan as part of a peace agreement.