Today, August 15th, marks the first anniversary of the return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan. The Taliban government promised peace and stability to a country racked by two decades of war and U.S. occupation. But Afghanistan is now instead facing a grave humanitarian crisis, perhaps the worst in the world. According to the United Nations, nearly 95% of Afghans are going hungry.
This comes as women now reportedly face harsher restrictions in Afghanistan than anywhere else in the world. A piece published in the Zan Times, a new women-led news outlet documenting human rights issues in Afghanistan, reflects on one year since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan: quote, “As we write this, an estimated 20 million girls and women have lost their human rights under a ‘mullahcracy’ that believes in the inherent superiority of one sex over all others, determined to institutionalize rabid, violent sexism. In their second week in power, they ordered women to stay home. In their second month in power, they banned teenage girls from schools, dismantled all systems of support for women and girls, forbade their protests and denied their rights to social and political participation. In their fourth month, they denounced the autonomy of all women and
— source democracynow.org | Aug 15, 2022
