A few days ago (February 20), the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior released a video showing women protesters in Kabul admitting that their protests were being organized and led by some outsiders. In the video released, “Lina Ahmadi, one of the protesters” says that those who started the process (of protests) encouraged them to continue their protests. Lina Ahmadi says that the treatment of the Taliban has been good during the time we have been in their captivity. Following is the confession of another woman who said, “Those outside Afghanistan who is leading the protests have asked us if we continue to protest against the Islamic Emirate and cause unrest. They will evacuate us.” The video continues with the women confessing. “Fatemeh, another protester,” said the reason for her protest: “We wanted to leave the country. Because I have four children and my goal was for my children to go to a better school.” The video shows Medina, another protester, saying, “We were told you had to have a strong case to get out of Afghanistan. Without a case, you can not leave Afghanistan. We were told to protest so that we could leave Afghanistan easily. We were protesting so that we could leave the country.” The video goes on to emphasize that many of the protesters’ goal is to leave Afghanistan and file a case and that people abroad are encouraging them to protest.
Two issues can be mentioned in connection with the publication of this fake and planned video:
The video that was made to defame the reason for women’s protests was so disgusting, shameful, and misogynistic and shocked our collective conscience. A huge shock that discloses the nature of the Taliban. Frightened faces, trembling and anxious voices of women speaking in fear show that the Taliban’s atrocities, brutality, and oppression are endless.
What the Taliban released as the “confession of protesting women.” was not a confession, but forcing women to say things that were against their will. The words were said by force of torture and coercion. The question is, how and under what circumstances were the girls who were recently abducted from a safe house by the Taliban forced to say such things? The viewer does not see behind the scene. He sees only the part of the story that the Taliban terrorist group wants to be seen. The experience of countries ruled by repressive and authoritarian regimes in such cases shows that confessors are generally tortured and forced to speak out under severe psychological conditions. This method of confession is a common tool of all totalitarian and authoritarian regimes. They use threats and intimidation to threaten people with rape, torture, and death. The shaky and terrifying voice of the girls talking in the video illustrates this well. A planned confession that showed the depth of fear, panic, and loneliness in the protesting girls. This form of confession is a clear violation of human rights and human values.
The next topic is the fabricated and engineered narrative of the Taliban. The narrative they insisted on showing that the protesters had protested for personal reasons, including filing a case and leaving the country. They clumsily tried to show that the protesters were being led from outside. This means that the protesting women are like puppets in the hands of foreign individuals and groups. In this fictional comic, they tell the audience that the basis of the women’s protests is not the repressive and brutal policies of the Taliban, but the individual reasons and filing a case by the protesting women. This narrative is so embarrassing, unbelievable, and ridiculous that shows the Taliban’s fake play. Because even a naive viewer can recognize the written and designed script of the video creators. Protests against inequality, and towards political and social participation, the right to education, the right to work, freedom, demanded by women are not limited to the past few months. They have been demanding equal and human rights for the past two decades. These demands were expressed more systematically and harmoniously by women after the Taliban terrorist group took over Afghanistan and the anti-feminist and inhumane policies of this petrified and backward group carried out.
Accordingly, it can be argued that the fabricated and engineered narrative of the Taliban, who sought to trace the basis of the protests to outside and filing cases by the protesters, rather than their own repressive and brutal policies, is fundamentally wrong. The only important point that can be understood from this engineered video is that the evil, savagery, violence, oppression, and misogyny of this irrational group are unlimited.
“The Taliban have raided a residential house and arrested a group of 40 people, 29 of whom were women protesters and their relatives,” US Special Representative for Afghanistan” Rina Amiri” Twitted on February 12. Amiri demanded that the unjust detentions be stopped. An hour later, she deleted her tweet without explanation. When news of the arrests of women protesters broke in the media, people close to Ms. Amiri tried hard to persuade the media, individuals, and influential news networks not to cover the arrests of women by the Taliban. They argued that the issue should be resolved through diplomacy and dialogue so that the protesting women would not be harmed. Exactly one week later, the Taliban terrorist group released a video of the protesting women’s confession. The question now is whether this was the result of the US Special Representative’s negotiation and diplomacy for Women? Or did Ms. Amiri and the people that tried to boycott the news of the arrest of the protesting women mean this by supporting?
Translated by: Jahan Raha
