As the Taliban surround the capital Kabul and are on the verge of regaining full control of Afghanistan, a combination of angst and fear spreads among civilians, especially women.
Former United Nations Youth Ambassador Aisha Khurram shared a tweet about the situation at Kabul University this Sunday morning (15) – Sunday is a working day in Muslim countries.
“Some professors said goodbye to their students when everyone was evacuated from Kabul University this morning … And maybe we don’t graduate as well as thousands of students across. the country … “, she writes on the social network. network.
Also on Twitter, Lotfullah Najafizada, head of the Afghan news service Tolo News, posted an image of a man covering photos of women painted on a wall in Kabul with paint.
More than 250,000 people have been displaced by the fighting and many have sought refuge in the Afghan capital.
Some of those who fled Taliban-controlled areas said militants demanded families hand over unmarried girls and women to become wives of their fighters.
Muzhda, 35, a single woman who fled Parwan to Kabul with her two sisters, said she would kill herself rather than allow the Taliban to force her into marriage.
“I cry day and night,” she told AFP news agency.
Women in Taliban-controlled areas also described being forced to wear burqas – a full-body garment that has a narrow eye-level screen that can be seen through – and activists beat people to violation of social rules.
Life under the Taliban in the 1990s required women to wear the garment. Radical Islamists have limited education to girls over the age of ten and brutal punishments have been imposed, including public executions.
Group activists told the BBC they were determined to strengthen their version of Sharia, Islamic law, which includes stoning for adultery, amputating limbs for theft and banning girls over 12. years of going to school.
EXIT FROM KABUL
According to news agencies, Taliban militants are entering Kabul “from all sides” this Sunday (8/15).
In a statement, the extremist group ordered its fighters to remain at the entry points to the capital, citing the risk to the civilian population.
The interim Afghan interior minister appeared in a video, broadcast by local television station Tolo TV, claiming that there would be a “peaceful transfer of power” to a transitional government. He said Kabul would not be attacked.
The Associated Press, citing an Afghan official, said Taliban negotiators were heading to the presidential palace to prepare for a “handover” of power.
But the Afghan presidential office has denied on Twitter that the situation in Kabul is out of control.
“There have been sporadic shootings in Kabul, Kabul has not been attacked, the country’s security and defense forces are working with international partners to keep the city safe, the situation is under control.”
In the midst of a “lightning” offensive, the Taliban came to dominate major Afghan cities.
On Sunday, activists took control of Jalalabad, a large city in the east of the country, without encountering resistance.
The takeover of Jalalabad comes after the Taliban came to dominate another important stronghold, the city of Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan, on Saturday (14).
The group is also said to have taken over Bamiyan, where 20 years ago two giant Buddhas, part of the country’s historical and cultural heritage, exploded, drawing condemnation from around the world.
Nili, capital of central Daykundi province, also surrendered to the Taliban without much resistance, press reported.
And in the last few hours, the group claimed to have taken control of the Bagram airfield and prison outside Kabul.
The complex was the epicenter of the war against the Taliban and al-Qaeda for about 20 years, until last month, when the US military left in the middle of the night without warning the Afghans.
US-led coalition forces invaded Afghanistan in December 2001 and Bagram became a massive base capable of housing up to 10,000 troops.
Former US Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump visited the base during their tenure.
Bagram also has a prison, with around 5,000 Taliban detainees. Sources linked to the extremist group claimed that the prisoners had been released.
Bagram prison has been dubbed the “Guantanamo of Afghanistan” – referring to the infamous US military prison in Cuba.
It was originally built and operated by the Americans, but handed over to Afghan control in 2013.