Taliban Forbid Afghan Females Without Male Guardians To Fly

Afghanistan’s Taliban, following a decade of oppression of women’s rights and recent pledges to improve conditions in this area upon taking power, have engaged in another controversial practice by barring unaccompanied women from boarding flights, just days after banning girls from attending school in Afghanistan.

In an interview with the Associated Press (AP), two Afghan airline officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of repercussions from the Taliban, said that dozens of women who arrived at Kabul Hamid Karzai International Airport on Friday to board domestic and international flights were told that they were unable to do so without a male guardian.

Officials said that some of the ladies were dual nationals returning to their countries of origin, including several from Canada, and that others were from other countries. According to airline authorities, women were refused boarding on flights to Islamabad, Dubai, and Turkey operated by Kam Air and the state-owned Ariana Airline.

According to one official, the order came from the Taliban’s top leadership. According to the source, several ladies traveling alone had been granted permission to board an Ariana Airlines trip to western Herat province by Saturday afternoon. Nevertheless, he claims that by the time the authorization was given, they had already missed their scheduled departure.

The president of the airport and the head of police, both members of the Taliban organization and Islamic clerics, were meeting with airline executives on Saturday morning. “They are attempting to resolve the situation,” the official said.

While it was still unknown if the Taliban would exclude air travel from an edict issued months before requiring women traveling more than 72 kilometers (45 miles) to travel with a male relative, it was evident that they would.

Officials from the Taliban who were reached by the Associated Press did not reply to several requests for comment.

Since assuming power in August, the Taliban leadership has been at odds with one another as they seek to make the transition from fighting to managing their country. It has pitted hard-liners – such as interim Prime Minister Mullah Hasan Akhund, who is strongly anchored in the old guard – against more pragmatic members of the old guard, such as Sirajuddin Haqqani, who are more open to compromise. Following the death of his father, Jalaluddin Haqqani, he assumed control of the renowned Haqqani network. The older Haqqani, who passed away some years ago, belonged to Akhund’s generation, which dominated Afghanistan under the severe and unquestioned leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar in the 1980s and 1990s.

Many Afghans are outraged by the fact that many Taliban of the younger generation, such as Sirajuddin Haqqani, are teaching their daughters in Pakistan, whereas women and girls in Afghanistan have been targeted by their draconian edicts since they seized control.

It has only been a few days since the Taliban-run Afghanistan’s all-male religiously motivated government abandoned its pledge to allow females to return to school after the sixth grade, the latest attack on women’s rights in the country.

Since the Taliban surged into power in August last year, the world community has been hesitant to recognize the Taliban-run government, fearful that they would return to the brutal rule of the 1990s. The action infuriated the international community. Afghans were outraged by the Taliban’s unwillingness to let all Afghan children to attend school, which enraged vast segments of the country’s population. On Saturday, scores of Afghan girls took to the streets of Kabul to demand the right to attend school for their peers.

Afghan women’s rights campaigner Mahbouba Seraj spoke on Afghanistan’s TOLO TV after the Taliban banned females from continuing their education above the sixth grade and asked: “How can we, as a people, continue to put our faith in your words? What do you want us to do to make you happy? Should we all perish together?”

According to Matiullah Wesa, the founder of the Afghan nonprofit PenPath, which operates dozens of “hidden” schools with thousands of volunteers, the organization plans to hold nationwide rallies to demand that the Taliban reconsider their decision.

Roya Mahboob, an Afghan entrepreneur who formed an all-girl robotics team in Afghanistan, was honored with the Forum Award on Saturday at the Doha Forum 2022 in Qatar. The award was awarded in recognition of her efforts and dedication to girls’ education.

After lessons for older females were suspended, Tom West, the United States’ special envoy for Afghanistan, postponed discussions with Taliban representatives at the Doha Forum.

“We have canceled some of our engagements, including scheduled meetings in Doha and surrounding the Doha Forum,” said Jalina Porter, a deputy spokeswoman for the United States Department of State. “We have made clear that we see this decision as a possible turning point in our engagement,” she said.

‘If the Taliban’s decision is not promptly overturned, it will have a devastating impact on the Afghan people as well as the country’s chances for economic progress and the Taliban’s desire to restore ties with the international world,’ she said.

West admitted that the Taliban had made pledges to enable girls and women to attend school since assuming power, but he remained skeptical. Mr. Obama said that both the United States and the international community had gotten “the requisite guarantees” that this would occur.

“I was taken aback by the reversal this past Wednesday, and I believe you’ve seen how the rest of the world has reacted in denouncing this decision,” West added. This is a violation of the Afghan people’s confidence, he said, “first and foremost, since they took the decision to go,” he said.

“I think that there is yet hope. I’ve spoken to a lot of Afghans who are of the same opinion as I am. Hopefully, in the following days, we will witness a reversal of this judgment “he said.

In an interview conducted after winning the Doha Conference Award, Mahboob called on the numerous world leaders and policymakers who were in attendance at the forum to urge the Taliban to allow all Afghan children to attend school in the country.

When the Taliban retook control of Afghanistan, the robotics team was forced to flee, but Mahboob expressed optimism that a science and technology center for females, which she had intended to establish in the country, would still be able to be built.

“I believe that the rest of the world, the Muslim communities, and the people of Afghanistan have not forgotten about us and will not desert us,” she expressed optimism. “Afghanistan is a developing nation with limited resources. It does not have sufficient resources. In addition, if you take away (our information), I’m not sure what would happen “She went on to say more.