Life in the Taliban's Afghanistan

[Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] we're in wardak province there's a big celebration we've heard where a lot of taliban fighters are coming from various different provinces to commiserate the loss of a lot of fighters over the last 20 years and also to celebrate their very speedy victory so we've managed to get special permission for women to be allowed in for 10 minutes only so that we can see what's going on it's been six months since the taliban swept to power they're still celebrating that victory over the us and other foreign invaders and they're keen to present the world with a glorified vision of how safe and harmonious things are now for afghan civilians constant stream of people coming in with a lot of taliban leaders taliban fighters as well as kids and local people who have come to celebrate and now that taliban are fully back in control do you think the people's lives here are better now that the taliban is in control of the whole country [Music] they these are the orphaned children of those fighters killed in battle and they're being treated like celebrities how old were you guys when you lost your father that you have the damn year for yes we were taken to a room away from the crowd to speak with commander mohammed ibrahim tayyip a security chief for the area what does it feel like for you personally to be free of the americans [Music] [Music] you spent the last 20 years fighting this war i mean now that you're in control of the government do you feel like you're qualified do you feel like you're well equipped to controlling and running a country oh alhamdulillah [Music] [Music] when the taliban ruled afghanistan in the 90s women were under de facto house arrest barred from schools and work they were only allowed to leave home when escorted by male relatives and entirely covered this time round just as the taliban seized control of the country women have mostly disappeared from public life billboards showing women's faces have been blacked out restrictions on women's work and education have been implemented and many of the hard-fought freedoms over the last 20 years have suddenly vanished female protesters who've tried to speak out have quickly been shut down forcing them to demand their rights from indoors and yet the taliban government now ruling over the country insists that the systems they've put in place are working for all afghans there's no better place to see that system in action than in the local courts [Music] so we've managed to get into this taliban courthouse which is super informal people from this district are coming here to make their complaints and their issues heard and the judge is ruling over them right now you know this is the only form of justice system now left in the country and it's entirely ruled by their interpretation of sharia law he's responsible for issuing fatwas for how afghans should be living their lives and presiding over all legal cases in the area so what kind of guidelines are you giving people for in terms of how they should be living here quran what happens if women don't want to abide by these new rules i mean they don't want to cover themselves they don't want to stay at home they don't want to be invisible you think it's because women's rights are secure under the taliban that they're not coming to you it's not because they're scared the judge was adamant that afghan women are safer now thanks to the strict judicial system being rolled out across the country he took us to the local jail where the taliban had recently detained suspected criminals what are you guys here foreign [Music] and this person allegedly stole something how old are you what tell us eighteen he looks so young what did he steal the pisces so if he's found guilty of stealing he will have his hand cut off [Music] with you hi you speak english yes they bring me from this village by nothing this young man who we'll call bismullah had something to tell us but with so many taliban guards surrounding us he was clearly nervous you don't want to talk here i can see why bismillah would soon be released without charges just a couple days after our visit but this wasn't the last time we heard from him so we just received a pretty surprising phone call from the guy that we met inside the wardak jail when we're with the judge there um he's saying that he has some important information that he really wants us to know but he's very very nervous to meet us he's asked us to go to a secure location bizmuller wanted to share his story but asked us not to show his face we learned that it was bizmullah's sister who came to the judge seeking a divorce from her husband it's because of her case bismullah believes that he was imprisoned the last time we saw you you were in prison so do you feel like they brought you there to put pressure on your family involving this case which is corroborated by court documents and other family members is complex but it starts simply enough several years ago bismillah's sister married a man who will call abdullah they had seven children together but abdullah was violent he beat her repeatedly breaking so many bones and injuring her so severely that she frequently wound up in hospital then he married another woman and kicked bismillah's sister out of their home [Music] exercise oh this x-ray of uh the broken hand oh here's the break yeah this was another x-ray of another hand oh my gosh how many bones has she broken two hands one nose one head oh this is the picture of the top of her head yeah yeah it's really badly smashed in this mullet's sister went to the court in kabul which at the time was being run by the previous afghan government she told the court how she'd been beaten witnesses came to support her story the judge ruled that the couple should be separated but abdullah refused the divorce and instead fled to wardak province where he couldn't be forced to sign the divorce papers abdullah became a member of the taliban he then filed a complaint in the taliban court there and bismullah's sister was summoned judge iftika the man we met doubted her story taliban fighters then returned her to abdullah's house where he beat her again [Music] so what does it say it seems like under the previous afghan government that your sister was close to getting her divorce her husband was close to getting convicted for abuse do you think that now that the taliban have taken over that her husband has more power than he did before abdullah denies any charges of abuse and the case has now been escalated to a higher court but claims of gender-based violence like these are not unique about 87 of afghan women and girls face abuse in their lifetime according to human rights watch over the last 20 years the desperate circumstances faced by many afghan women became justification for u.s involvement in the country secretive shelters offering refuge for victims of domestic violence have appeared across afghanistan as far as taking the picture is concerned of course we want faces to be shown and not too much information please too much information will destroy us you're going to not only kill me but kill 29 women and children i want you to know that [Music] is a women's rights activist who runs the safe house for women it's the first time since the takeover that she's allowed media inside most shelters like this have closed but mabuba is determined to keep things going despite running the risk of retaliation by a conservative society who view them as brothels for sinful women i'm very more i'm very much [Music] seems everyone's very very attached to you well you know they've been they know i care for them we love them what kind of reasons is it the women and girls are coming here violets against them in the family violence against them by their husbands by their brothers by their family members by just violence all together and they're all coming here because they run away from home and they cannot go anywhere else how much of an issue is violence against women in afghanistan huge because i do believe that 40 years of war in a country can really do some some damage on the on the psyche of human beings as you know brought about generations of very very very disturbed and violent men 20 years ago when the us came here one of their priorities they proclaimed was women's rights yeah how do you feel that the international community has left afghan women now what's their situation international community left african women the same way they left afghanistan like a hot potato burned their hands dropped it we've been dropped they can't care less for the afghan women they can care less to what happened to the after people they contend less and this is a fact and i will scream it from the highest mountain in this world but i'm counting i'm counting on humanity i'm counting i'm counting on women it must be an unbelievable amount of pressure on you i can tell how attached you are to these women how attached they are to you but it's a lot of pressure to keep these women safe i keep on thinking okay if we are not around what's going to happen to them you know it's hard one 22 year old woman who we'll call fatima has been here for four years she came from an area where the taliban have maintained control for the last 10 years and said that she had nowhere else to run to [Music] fatima was just a child when she was so severely injured by her husband repeatedly raping and beating her that she was taken to hospital they treated her but her husband refused to pay the hospital bill and fled then her brothers remarried her to another abusive man her first husband was furious when he returned years later and found that she had married someone else he went to the taliban court which operated in the shadows at the time and accused her of adultery so people within the taliban and the taliban courts sentenced you to death by stoning [Music] up [Music] latino not important we tracked down the female judge who intervened in fatima's case by taking it out of the taliban court system and ruling that her second marriage was lawful are you scared about the fact that now the taliban are in control and the people that you put behind bars are now out on the loose sarees and just a few months ago judges like this ruled over cases like fatima's by implementing the elimination of violence against women act a hard-won law that criminalized gender-based violence but now that hundreds of female judges themselves are in danger that leaves very few options for women who face abuse [Music] back in wardak a couple weeks later bismillah's sister's divorce case has been stalled along with hopes of justice being served the judge is ruling over a number of cases and he's just about to announce his verdict on this case this guy in the green vest has been accused of setting fire to a truck so the last time that i saw you you told us about a divorce case can you just tell me a little bit more about that case and what happened and what you think should happen [Music] and what was it that you decided here at this court that's what you [Music] so because the husband has sworn that he didn't do it that counts for more than the fact that this woman is saying that she was repeatedly beaten she has scams of you know broken bones broken nose broken arms where do you think that women who are in abusive relationships should go for help [Music] do you think that it can ever be justified for a man to beat his wife should women be allowed to do your job and preside over cases and to determine what justice is foreign [Music] though the taliban have vowed to respect women in this situation of their governance their interpretation of what that means has raised alarm when a woman's place is at the home education can feel pointless six months on those in charge have deemed that it's still not safe for girls over the age of 12 to return to school at all so this is the asiana center where a lot of disadvantaged kids have brought from the streets or have been orphaned to get educated you know it goes all the way through from right down to little kids through to high school right now you know although kids are still coming in there's fewer and fewer older girls coming and that's because the taliban have ordered all boys in high school to come back to get educated but they haven't yet said what happens to girls and that is causing a lot of anxiety here [Music] [Music] studied here herself as a kid she's been teaching for the last four years but says that girl's attendance has recently plummeted are they aware of the situation at the moment [Music] [Music] foreign um [Music] across the country boys of all ages are getting educated in kandahar the spiritual heartland of the taliban enrollment for madrasas are higher than ever we sought permission to enter one of these religious schools which the mullah in charge allowed on the condition that i was completely covered [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh wow wow there's so many kids so many children you can hear these sounds all across the school in different classrooms these boys have been up for the last five hours reciting the quran and this is what they do every day that they're here very very committed [Music] the taliban consider themselves religious scholars now that they're in control they lean on mullers to help guide their decisions this muller was arrested many times under the previous government for his close ties with the taliban leadership in the area who he now meets with once a week after a lot of negotiations with my male colleagues he eventually allowed me into his office discussing whether i couldn't take my bail off am i allowed to take my burqa off see those doors he will not look at me yeah okay if you'd like to take a seat here and then you'll be talking to my translator behind me um it's very hot in these things thank you okay well thank you for sitting down with me can you tell us what the role of mullahs are in this new taliban government uh over the last nine years or so that you've had this place how many times has it been targeted [Music] i mean yeah i'm sure there are a lot of people who support the taliban there are also a lot of people who don't and are terrified about their rights being rolled back and are also now living in fear america um you've reluctantly let us in covered you're not looking directly at me what role do you think women have in afghan society [Music] she [Music] this muller who has significant power is advocating for stricter societal rules which seems like a strange priority given the current state of the country just down the road from the madrasa is the border with pakistan where the mullah himself has spent several years studying though he's returned thousands of others are desperately trying to escape foreign so many people are trying to get over the border and the taliban police are trying to control people to stop them from crossing everyone's showing us passports everyone's showing us documents why is the border shot [Music] here in afghanistan the abrupt change of government and concerns over the taliban's treatment of women and other minorities has led foreign governments to freeze aid coming into the country rapidly escalating the humanitarian crisis into the world's worst women and children are some of the most vulnerable how many days have you been here for that [Music] [Music] have you tried going to the hospitals here going to see the doctor well i how has the situation for you changed in the last couple of months since this change of government [Music] this woman is not alone 95 of afghans currently don't have enough to eat at a nearby hospital the staff are overrun with those who are desperately malnourished [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] this hospital is struggling to deal with the soaring number of daily admissions pediatrics specialist nazir ahmed says they'll soon be running out of beds and supplies seems very busy here today we have a lot of patients and everyday we have a lot of problems here is there's so many babies in here how much of the numbers increased this year versus last year masala [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] how old is he two months what's the problem with him now [Music] this mother has just lost one of her children to severe malnutrition she's now fighting for the life of her baby farfula this is your baby the one i know your mother and how old is he in power six months six months he's absolutely tiny [Music] have you been able to get enough food for yourself and for your family or has that been a problem [Music] what's the doctor said [Music] yes [Music] this is the heartbreaking reality of afghanistan today it's being overseen by an all-male government that for the last 20 years has been used to fighting an insurgency now they find themselves facing urgent pleas for help from their own people this country right now is facing a humanitarian crisis people are literally starving to death healthcare centers are overrun how are you tackling that i mean that sounds like a very optimistic outlook i mean a lot of the funds coming into this country have been paused and that's because the international community is unable to recognize the taliban government because of your terrible human rights abuses happening here will you ever compromise on what your interpretation of very strict islamic law is but surely to recognize the taliban government i mean you it's as simple as just putting systems in place i mean and being clear on what the specifics are for example say when girls are going to go back to school provide equal rights for men and women get rid of some of the draconian applications of sharia law afghanistan afghanistan is consistently ranked the worst place to be a woman under the previous government any form of abuse towards women was deemed a criminal act under the new taliban courts will that still be the case i mean that's not true women are still getting abused and you haven't really answered my question in that will there be a law in place where it is a criminal act to abuse a woman i mean i don't think that's true i think a lot of the women that we spoke to were severely abused and extremely traumatized you have a daughter do you think that she deserves equal rights when she grows up to be a woman accountability for what's happening to half of afghanistan's population is hard to come by there's a clear and widening disconnect between those in power and the women faced with the day-to-day heartache on the ground the humanitarian catastrophe exacerbates all that the un estimates that 97 of afghans may fall below the poverty line this year one million children could die of starvation there's two women that have just been rushed in here both of them with complicated pregnancies that these women are running around with such limited resources to help deliver the baby safely [Music] both of these cases problematic pregnancies what problems does that cause when you're giving birth you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] this [Music] [Music] oh my gosh delivering babies having to take phone calls managing this entire maternity ward she's unbelievable [Music] now that these girls are here thank god what kind of future do you think that they face [Music] what does life look like for these girls who will grow up to be women in this new afghanistan malfunction [Music] [Music] my you

Channel: VICE News

Views: 5,900,490

Keywords: VICE News, VICE News Tonight, VICE on HBO, news, vice video, VICE on SHOWTIME, vice news 2020, isobel vice news, isobel yeung, afghanistan, kabul, kandahar, afghanistan vice news, taliban, the taliban, womens rights, feminism, the taliban women, afghanistan women, afghanistan war, afghanistan biden, taliban rule, vice world news

Id: iIFi_Rgm-T8

Length: 44min 7sec (2647 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 13 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Equivalent_Alps_8321]

Taliban are truly a bunch of barbarians.

[u/Queasy-Law-2219]

In the one video by the vice, it was mentioned that a 9 year old girl got married to a 80 year old who would constantly beat And rape her, he would get mad at her for not having a kid, the girl tried to run away but her brothers married her to someone else, when the 80 year old realised he went to the Taliban court, they sentenced her guilty and send her to be stoned to death but a judge saved her