Some activists are staying as a conscious decision, while others are living in fear of reprisals and an imminent economic collapse

By Patrick Sawer, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER and Suddaf Chaudry KABUL | Telegraph

As the Taliban swept into Kabul and seized control of Afghanistan after a 20-year absence, one women's rights activist tried to carry on as normal.

Now, a month into the new regime, Nadima remains determined to continue her work, regardless of what the men in power say.

The 38-year-old says she has no intention of leaving Afghanistan, even though the hardline religious militants with a history of brutalising and oppressing women and girls have returned.

“I want to stay and I will stay,” Nadima told The Telegraph. “It would be inhuman for me to flee. I’ve given my word to the women I work with and I’m not just going to flush that effort down the toilet and shut things down.”

Nadima is one of a small but significant number of activists for whom staying is a conscious decision.

“I say to people ‘dont run away, stay and rebuild this country’,” she said. “The people will rebuild the country and we need to help each other to do so. I hope we will have stability now so we can start rebuilding the sort of country we want.”

Her parents fled Afghanistan’s turmoil when she was just a baby, running through the mountains to Pakistan before settling first in Dubai and eventually in Canada, but she returned in 2019 - determined to do something for her native land.

Challenging traditional attitudes

Taking advantage of the relative - but with hindsight clearly precarious - stability provided by the presence of US and NATO troops, she set about challenging centuries of autocratic and sexist attitudes ingrained in sections of Afghan society.

Nadima likes to say she is Afghanistan’s first female comedian; harnessing humour to change people’s minds.

“I use comedy and social media to create awareness of human rights for women and children, and men as well, by challenging practices such as arranged marriages, child marriages, child exploitation, corporal punishment and domestic violence and arguing for equality, starting in the home,” she said. 

“I take my message into schools and women’s groups. Recently I spoke to a group of widows. But, you know, I spend more time talking to men than women, trying to engage with them about the way they behave.”

Even under the previous Government it wasn’t easy, but Nadima knows it will now get a whole lot harder. 

Already there have been reports of Taliban militants clamping down, attacking women with whips and rifle butts who have bravely taken to the streets to demand their rights be respected.

Women have started wearing burqas in areas where they weren’t previously common, and they have been turned away from work, university and beauty salons. Kabul’s vivid murals of women have been painted over and there is uncertainty over education for girls. 

A senior Taliban figure said on Monday that Afghan women should not be allowed to work alongside men, which would effectively bar them from employment in government offices, banks, media companies and beyond.

Like everyone in her shoes Nadima is feeling her way, testing the parameters and the patience of the new regime.

Refusing to hide

“I’m not hiding. The Taliban know who I am and I’m happy to talk to them,” she said. “So far I haven’t been told anything by the Taliban. I’ve offered to communicate with the new leadership. I’ve even asked them how I can help.

“I just want to carry on with my work with the women, even if it's within limits set by the Taliban. 

"I have never taken a side in this game. I was never affiliated with the old government and I’m not going to affiliate with the new government. I’m going to stay independent.”

With what may seem like foolhardy naivety, Nadima - who for her social media platforms has adopted the persona Patinggala Kakai, a mother married at 16 and now with two teenagers - maintains that she won't budge in the face the growing clampdown on women which has followed the initially more moderate stance adopted by the Taliban's leadership.

“If it becomes hard for me to operate and work I’m going to carry on  regardless,” she said. “I’m not going to leave. What am I going to do - go back to working my old job in logistics in Alberta?”

Nadima, who eschews her surname to symbolically assert her freedom from patriarchal societies, is sympathetic to many who felt they had no choice but to make a rush to Kabul airport in an attempt to flee the country as the previous government fell and western troops pulled out. But she questions the motivation of some.

“I understand why a woman who works as a fashion model wants to leave for fear of what the Tailban did to women 20 years ago,” she said. “But a lot of people didn't let their daughters go to school before the Taliban came back, so I don't understand why they want to escape now.”

Indeed she urges those who have a choice to stay.

“People have been left asking: ‘Who is going to take care of us now the west has gone?’ My response is that we are going to have to take care of ourselves. If we want to change our reality, change Afghanistan, we have to change the way we think, we have to start being good to each other and we have to start rebuilding the country,” she said.

Nadima is wary of what the future brings, but is not wholly pessimistic, hoping that the Taliban will display enough pragmatism to allow women the space to operate.

“The new regime has an opportunity to bring women into positions of power so that they can get aid funding and trade,” she said. “If they want other governments to support them they will have to accept their conditions, such as empowering Afghanistan’s women.”

Her optimism appears to fly in the face of reports of Taliban fighters going door to door to hunt down former Afghan government officials and those who worked with US and NATO forces.

Living in fear of reprisals

Left with no choice but to stay after receiving no help from the Western governments he worked with under the previous administration is Abdul-Ali (not his real name).

He is lying low, fearing his social media work for the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) will make him a target for revenge by the Taliban.

“I have received no help from western powers to escape. The UK Home Office won't help me, even though I have a sister in London, so I have decided to stay,” said Abdul-Ali, 28. “I have no choice even though my life is in danger here.

“I can't make the journey overland to Pakistan because my wife and I have a three-month-old baby daughter and a three-year-old boy. It’s too dangerous and I can’t leave them alone in Afghanistan.

“Perhaps I will start a small business or a shop. God willing the Taliban won’t kill me first.”

The overthrow of the elected government, economic uncertainty and the possibility of Afghanistan being again cut off from the outside world has had an immediate impact on millions for whom leaving was never an option.

Sudden lack of dollars and customers

Ibrahimi, a money changer in Kabul, said: ``We are facing a lack of dollars, we have lost lots of customers due to the Taliban restrictions. This store was full of people prior to the Taliban control”.

His colleague points to the quiet street lined with money exchange shops, their owners drinking tea and looking out of their windows in the hope of a customer. 

“We are making zero profit but the rent of the building has increased,” he said. “I can’t believe that for a couple of months we were concerned about the pandemic. We are facing a much bigger threat, economic uncertainty which will be the real killer.”

It was a similar picture at a nearby homeware store.

“I used to make $3 profit on this item,” its owner Ahmed said, holding up a coffee pot. “But now  I can’t even break even. I have maybe one month left, I don’t think I can keep the shop open much longer than that. I think I have to leave, there is no future here, I have a wife I need to provide for.”

His one hope is that the new regime’s footsoldiers and their families will provide a new source of customers.

“A woman came in yesterday and purchased a significant amount, I was surprised,” said Ahmed. “I asked why she was buying when no one else was. Her response to me was: ‘My husband is in the Taliban. We are from Kandahar and we need to furnish our kitchen.”

Ordinary citizens are trying to continue with their lives. After all, millions cannot escape and must carry on as best they can.

“I was at a wedding in the past few weeks,” said Nadima. “The women went to a beauty salon, then they sang and danced at the ceremony in the afternoon. There was music, people had a wonderful time.

“The women I spoke to there told me that life will continue, all that has changed are the uniforms of the men playing their big game.”