Pascal Oparada
Women in Afghanistan are burning or hiding their academic credentials to avoid the wrath of the terrorist organization, the Taliban.
The terror group frowns at women education and in the last 20 years that they were ousted by a US-led force, many women have upped their academic records.
The Guardian reports of women being taunted by Afghan men who asked them to bring out their burqa and discard anything western education.
One of the women, who refused to be named, said after Kabul fell to the Taliban on Sunday, a group of men approached her and told her to put on her burqa.
She also reported discrimination by commercial transport operators who see them as anti-Islam because they are not fully clothed in a burqa.
“I have nearly completed two simultaneous degrees from two of the best universities in Afghanistan. I should have graduated in November from the American University of Afghanistan and Kabul University, but this morning everything flashed before my eyes.
“I worked for so many days and nights to become the person I am today, and this morning when I reached home, the very first thing my sisters and I did was hide our IDs, diplomas and certificates. It was devastating. Why should we hide the things that we should be proud of? In Afghanistan now we are not allowed to be known as the people we are.
“As a woman, I feel like I am the victim of this political war that men started. I felt like I can no longer laugh out loud, I can no longer listen to my favourite songs, I can no longer meet my friends in our favourite cafe, I can no longer wear my favourite yellow dress or pink lipstick. And I can no longer go to my job or finish the university degree that I worked for years to achieve.
“I loved doing my nails. Today, as I was on my way home, I glanced at the beauty salon where I used to go for manicures. The shopfront, which had been decorated with beautiful pictures of girls, had been whitewashed overnight,” she said.
Although the Taliban had admitted to a BBC journalist in Doha that the policy of stopping women and girls from getting an education in the past was wrong, many say the promise of reversing it is a glib one.
