Women take up arms against Taliban in Afghanistan’s Ghor

Of about 400 districts of Afghanistan, the Taliban are said to be in control of over 100 districts. The month of June saw several deadly battles between the Afghan forces and the Taliban including those in Ghor, where tens of soldiers were reportedly killed.

In a significant development, women in Ghor have taken up arms to defend their motherland against the Taliban. Photographs of Ghor women holding guns and rocket launchers are being shared on social media.

Afghan news agencies have reported that the women picked up the guns to stave off “the dark era of Taliban”.

The Taliban had ruled Afghanistan during 1990s imposing severe curbs on women, banning their school education and even prohibiting movement if not accompanied by a male member of the family.

Governor Abdul Zahir Faizzada, who attended one of the gatherings of women fighters, was quoted as saying, “This is our message to our security forces who are defending their nation that their sisters stand by them.”

“They consider themselves responsible and today they even said that they don’t want the dark history of Taliban’s rule to return,” the governor said.

“We have experience from the dark era of Taliban and once again we will not allow women to stay at their homes and not be able to go out of their homes,” a woman holding an AK-47 was quoted as saying.

This is, however, not the first time that women of Ghor have taken up arms against the Taliban. In August 2020, a teenager had made international headlines after she gunned down two Taliban soldiers who had burst through the front doors of her home and “executed” her parents in the dead of the night.

Having been trained in self-defence and in using an AK-47 assault rifle, she picked up her father’s gun and kept firing at the intruders until she exhausted the bullets. Outside lay five bodies – her parents, a relative and the two invaders.

“Women were making important contributions to national development. In 1977, women comprised over 15 per cent of Afghanistan’s highest legislative body. It is estimated that by the early 1990s, 70 per cent of schoolteachers, 50 per cent of government workers and university students, and 40 per cent of doctors in Kabul were women.”

– INDIA TODAY