Human rights' activist Mahbouba Seraj at her home in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 28, 2021.Asmaa Waguih/The Globe and Mail
As a pioneer of Afghanistan’s women’s rights movement, Mahbouba Seraj realized in the run-up to the Taliban’s takeover in 2021 that her fight for gender equality could become a lost cause. The Taliban had deprived women of their basic rights, freedoms and identities before the regime was toppled in 2001 – a fear that women across the country ultimately have to live through again.
While tens of thousands of Afghans made their way to Kabul’s airport in August, 2021, desperately trying to leave the country, Ms. Seraj chose to stay behind and continue campaigning for equality, despite being eligible for evacuation as a dual Afghan-U. S. citizen.
Every single time she talks to the Taliban, at all levels of the regime, she always raises her concerns about “women not having any part in the society,” she told The Globe and Mail in a phone interview from Kabul. “I am the voice of the Afghan people,” she said. “I am the voice of the women who want me. I will be continuing that.”
Ms. Saraj’s decision to keep the pressure on the repressive regime earned her a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize last month.
Although she feels “really honoured” to be nominated, the founder of the non-profit Afghan Women’s Network fears that achieving equality and peace in the country is unattainable unless Afghans as a whole – from Taliban rulers to politicians to ordinary citizens – begin genuine peace talks and the world is willing to talk to the Taliban. She is appealing to the international community to engage with the Islamic fundamentalist group.
“There is no way where we can get to any type of a decision by hitting on each other’s head, killing each other, taking guns again, destroying each other. We can’t do that or taking the rights of one group or the other away from them,” she said. “We should all sit down and talk about it and see where we are and what is happening.”
The Nobel Peace Prize nominee also complained about how the U.S. handled its withdrawal from Afghanistan and how it dropped the country “like a hot potato” after establishing a military presence there for almost 20 years.
The 75-year-old activist chided the Taliban for their repressive policies. She also criticized the Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, for not agreeing to meet with UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who was in Kandahar in January to discuss the regime’s restrictions on women – in particular depriving them from working for foreign agencies, including the United Nations.
But Ms. Seraj warned that sanctions imposed by Western countries since the Taliban’s takeover are actually hurting ordinary Afghans. Financial sanctions have also prevented Afghan citizens and NGOs from accessing their much-needed money in overseas bank accounts, especially at a time when the country is close to economic collapse.
“Every sanction everywhere in the world is not for the governments. The effect of it is on the people and it is the people of Afghanistan who are paying the price for the sanctions, not the government of Afghanistan,” she said.
Ms. Seraj, the niece of Amanullah Khan who was the king of Afghanistan from 1926 to 1929, fled with her family to the U.S. as a refugee in 1979. She returned to her homeland in 2003 – at a time when less than 10 per cent of girls were enrolled in primary school – and has been fighting for women’s rights ever since.
She worked extensively for empowering women and, during the former government, served as executive director of the Afghan Women Skills Development Centre. She also ran shelters in Kabul for women who faced domestic violence. These achievements were recognized by Time magazine, which named her as one of the world’s 100 most influential people in 2021.
Her Nobel Peace Prize nomination in a tribally polarized and war-torn country has received mixed reaction, particularly among some Afghan diaspora who criticized her for calling on the world to engage with the Taliban. Others called her brave for fighting women’s rights against the misogynist Taliban and for staying in the country.
In the meantime, Ms. Seraj’s struggle for human rights to be recognized in Afghanistan continues. The Taliban imposed sweeping restrictions on women since they took power in 2021, despite initially promising to honour women’s rights. Girls are no longer allowed to attend secondary schools nor higher education, and women are banned from working in public and private sectors.
Still, the prominent campaigner is not backing down from advocating for Afghan women’s rights. Despite the regime’s restrictions, Ms. Seraj continues to operate a network for women fleeing domestic abuse. She also continues to teach empowerment skills to women in Kabul, and she plans to expand her shelter program to several parts of Afghanistan in the future.
“I want to be next to my people. I want to do my job next to the women of this country,” she said. “I think some of them really do need me, some of the younger generation do need me, and I am happy to be here with them.
“And if my staying is some kind of strength and kind of an assurance for a life that is becoming so unknown in this country, then I am really glad that I stayed,” Ms. Seraj said. “And besides, I want to live for the rest of my life here and want to die here.”
This story was produced in partnership with Journalists for Human Rights with funding from Meta Journalism Project