If I were an Afghan woman today...

Today, 8/16/2021, Taliban has taken over Kabul and has become  in power in Afghanistan (again). They say this time things will be different yet we are already seeing photos and videos of masses of people fleeding, or hoping to fleed, Afghanistan scared for their own lives and those of the people they love. We have seen dead bodies, wounded bodies, including those of young people and children. Women and girls have already shared their fears and what they have to renounce to such as jobs, education and human rights. 

I live in Tuscany, Italy, and we're right in the middle of summer right now. I spend a couple of hours every afternoon at the beach. I go there alone, and I enjoy spending time with myself. This means I take the bus alone, I walk alone from the last bus stop to the beach, if I meet somone I know they stop and say "hi" or ask me how I am doing and we end up chatting regardless of the fact that they are men or women. I usually wear trousers, a t-shirt and nothing to cover my head. I reach the beach. I wear a bikini. I swim in the sea. I talk with the people around me. I eat something and read a book. I listen to the music I like. I usually take the bikini top off when it's wet and just wear a t-shirt. I go back to the bus stop. I talk with another woman who waits the bus with me. I travel on the bus. I reach home. I spend much time alone at home when my family members are at work. 

If I were an Afghan woman today I couldn't do most of these things. Some men called Taliban would ask me, sorry, force me, to cover my whole body and head up with a burqua. I work as a writer, copywriter and ghost writer and mostly use my passion for writing to speak my own truth and to support social causes. If I were an Afghan woman today, I probably would be seriously afraid of having to give my job up and I love my job, I've worked hard to get here, yet I feel it's not as much as any woman in Afghanistan must have worked hard to get to her job or school place. 
Afghan women had to fight hard to get their basic human rights, something - we should remember - women and girls shouldn't be granted, because it's something that belongs to them, as well as to any boy or man, at the moment of birth. Yet we all know in some countries around the world women must fight really hard to get rights we often take for granted.
We all are following what is happening in Afghanistan, and I sometimes find myself stepping out of the bigger picture and wondering what I'd do and feel if I were an Afghan woman.

Women and girls were banned from various things from 1996 to 2001:
Banned from studying
Banned from working
Banned from leaving house without male chaperone
Banned from showing any skin in public
Banned from healthcare
Banned from politics
Banned from speaking out to an audience.

I ask any woman, or even better, any human being, currently reading this to try to picture their daily life adjusting to those conditions. It wouldn't simply be possible to go on with our daily lives. We'd end up sacrificing something, even because punishment for not obeying to any of these laws was immediate and could have been carried out by any Taliban, usually in the street were a crowd, often an all-men crowd, could see the punishment. A girl who tried to study or whose skin was exposed, even just a little bit, could have been flogged but other atrocities were rapes, forced marriage and abduction.
Lately, we all have heard about the request from Taliban leaders to have lists of girls over the age of 15 and widows under the age of 45, for "marriage" with Taliban. I'm 36 years old. If I were an Afghan woman today, my name would be on one of those lists. 
Taliban also seem to be determined to ban girls over the age of 12 from getting an education. We're talking about entire generations of girls and women which will never have the tools to get a  jobs and to defend their own selves. Women may also end up being banned from empolyment and it seems Taliban are also determined to reinstate the law who allowed women to get out only if chaperoned by an adult male. 

It all may seem distant sometimes, like something terrible who is happening to people far away from where we live, something we sadly are getting used to due to the high number of wars and humanitarian crises as well as human rights violations all across the world, but I think trying to pur ourselves into the shoes of others and imagining our daily lives as well as our dreams, hopes and goals for the future as if we were living in Afghanistan in this very moment, could help us understand this is not only about wars and bombs. Taliban taking over Afghanistan again is already having an impact on the daily lives of many people, most of them forced to flee their region or even their country, or desperately wishing to do so.
​Imagine how your daily life, your future, would be affected if you were an Afghan woman today. 

Images are taken from Google. Rights belong to their owners.