Afghan Woman Award Winner Determined To Struggle For Rights Under Taliban

Rights Under Taliban:- Afghan lawyer Benafsha Yaqoobi has been chosen as one of the winners of the U.S. State Department's 2024 International Women of Courage Award.

Yaqoobi, who is visually impaired, has advocated for human and women's rights from exile since Taliban militants seized power and forced her to flee Afghanistan in August 2021.

"I am happy to have this prize because it gives me another platform to raise my voice for the world's most marginalized community," she told RFE/RL's Radio Azadi while alluding to the plight of Afghan women under Taliban rule.

While just about every part of Afghan society has seen an erosion of fundamental freedoms and rights under the militants, women and girls have been the main targets of mounting Taliban bans and restrictions.

Hard-line Taliban leaders have used their interpretation of Islamic Shari'a law to justify banning teenage Afghan girls and women from education, work in most sectors, and draconian restrictions on their mobility and how they can appear in public.

The Taliban has banned women from recreation by outlawing their visits to parks and public baths.

Women's rights activists who have spoken out, have ended up in jail.

"Every day after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, we are witnessing new restrictions being imposed on Afghan women," Yaqoobi said.

"No one in the world today can beat the oppression that the women suffer in Afghanistan," she added.

The rights campaigner served as a commissioner for the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission before the Taliban's return to power.

Yaqoobi advocated disability rights by hosting a daily television show. She is still engaged in advocating for the rights of Afghan girls with disabilities.

"The Taliban cannot rule Afghanistan without the consent of the Afghan people because they are the real owners of that land," she said, adding that all Afghans deserve to live in a broad-based and inclusive country.

She called on the Taliban government to immediately release all women rights campaigners who are languishing in its prisons because they spoke out for their rights.

"I am optimistic that Afghan women will get their rights back one day," she said. "We are effective and successful and will one day reach our goals."

Since 2007 the International Women of Courage Award honors activists and practitioners from around the world for demonstrating "exceptional courage, strength, and leadership in order to bring about positive change to their communities." RFE/RL/SP