Afghan Noura (20) loved playing football so much that for years she defied her family’s opposition. Not even her mother’s blows made her stop. Nor did the neighbours’ shit-slinging stop Noura.
But then the Taliban take over the country, and introduce a ban on sports for girls and women.
– I am not the same person anymore. Since the Taliban took over, I feel dead, Noura tells the news agency Ap.
BASKETBALL PLAYER: This woman poses with the ball she loves so much, but which the Taliban don’t want her to touch. Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi / Ap / NTB
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Without hope
AP photographer Ebrahim Noroozi has met a number of Afghanistan’s sportswomen in the capital, Kabul. The women pose with the sports equipment they love, but have to figure out their identity with the burqa. They don’t normally wear the burqa, but say they occasionally do when they go out, in order to remain anonymous and avoid harassment, according to Ap.
– Even though my life was difficult before, I had faith in myself. I knew that, with hard work, I could do anything I wanted. Now I no longer have any hope, Noura tells Ap.
Since the Taliban took over Afghanistan at record speed in August 2021, they have gradually tightened the rules on what girls and women can do. At the start, Taliban leaders promised that girls and women would be allowed to go to school and work.
FORBIDDEN: If this Afghan martial artist is to get more medals, she must leave Afghanistan. Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi / Ap / NTB
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– Starting to rush
Constant austerity
The Taliban require women to cover their hair and face in public and forbid them from going to parks and gyms. As late as Christmas Eve, the Taliban surprised the whole world with yet another ban: Afghan women are no longer allowed to work for national or international aid organizations.
– We are completely dependent on our female employees. They are the ones who reach out to vulnerable women and their children. Without our female employees, we would not reach 75 percent of those we help: To women and children. Therefore, our operation has been put on pause – and Jan Egeland is here to negotiate, said Neil Turner, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s country manager in Afghanistan, to Dagbladet earlier this week.
DO NOT TOUCH: A girl and her skateboard. But the Taliban no longer allow her to use this. Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi / Ap / NTB
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On Sunday 15 January, the message came that the organization Save the Children is resuming parts of its operations in Afghanistan, according to NTB. They then wrote that the Afghan authorities have assured that women can feel safe in the country.
– We are starting up again with some activities, including those related to health, nutrition and some teaching. In these areas, we have received clear, reliable assurances that our female employees are safe and can work without obstacles, says Save the Children’s David Wright in a press release.
He is head of Save the Children’s international program work.
Power struggle
There is reportedly a power struggle going on within the Taliban. While pragmatic leaders in Kabul want more female participation, there is a more fundamentalist religious leadership in Kandahar that does not want the same.
The Secretary General of the Norwegian Refugee Council, Jan Egeland, has been in Afghanistan this week, in an attempt to get the Taliban to allow Afghan women to work for them.
Afghanistan’s population is around 40 million. Of these, more than half, around 24 million Afghans, need help. A large part of Afghanistan’s households consist of widows or single parents with children, who are now very vulnerable with the Taliban’s new occupational ban.
– Now there are around 75 per cent, or 16-17 million women and children whom we do not reach, says Turner.
