JURIST EXCLUSIVE – Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Here, a female law graduate in Kabul offers her observations and perspective. For privacy and security reasons we are withholding her name and institutional affiliation. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.
I am living in Kabul Afghanistan and I am not feeling good. It’s not just me – no one in Afghanistan is feeling good, especially women, because no Afghan knows what will happen to us next.
I am not a practicing lawyer any more. I left my job three years ago due to personal issues, but I have worked with Vis Moot alumni in Afghanistan as a volunteer, and I’ve worked with an NGO as a program officer.
No one predicted that Afghanistan would fall. Every Afghan thought that Taliban didn’t have enough power to take all of provinces, but Taliban took all of them except Panjshir in 10 days, and it was shocking for us.
Knowing how the Taliban torture people in different ways, people are very afraid. I have already heard that the Taliban have killed former members of national army of Afghanistan and those who worked with international forces.
From perspective of law, we are in crisis. We don’t have any applicable law and there is no president to govern our country; there are just a few people governing the county the way they want. Because their futures are unknown, people fear for their lives and want to leave. Before Kabul fell many people came here, including police and army, and now they’re going to the airport, which is causing chaos.
We see no bright future for Afghanistan. From past experience Afghan people know that there is no leader who really thinks about the people; Afghan leaders always think about themselves and want to increase their wealth from public resources and from international development donations. For example, [former president] Ashraf Ghani and his team stole millions of dollars and escaped without thinking of his people and left Kabul to the Taliban. That night everyone was very afraid, fearing what was going to happen next.
According to the law, when an Afghanistan president dies or leaves, the first vice president should be acting president, but Afghanistan’s vice president escaped too. Then, two days after the Taliban announced a general amnesty, he announced he was acting president. Currently we don’t have any applicable constitutional law and we don’t have any president.
As a women and lawyer I don’t see anything good in the Taliban because they don’t have a good record. A lot of Afghans have worked with foreign forces and the Taliban threaten their lives. According the history of Afghanistan, when Mujahidin came people thought the war was over but then the war starts between Mujahidin because different Mujahidin groups had different ideas and wanted more power. They used Islamic religion as a weapon to take that power, and that is why people are afraid that history will be repeated. I think the reason behind the Afghanistan war is that the Afghan people don’t have real leader to think about them, to work for them and the country. Also there are different tribes in Afghanistan and people fight for their tribes, not for public benefit.
At the end I want to say that Afghan women have lost hope for their future because they are not allowed to go to work, study or go alone anywhere and they must wear what the Taliban want. The Taliban have freed every prisoner from prison and the courts are not working. Only a few Taliban are judging criminal and deciding cases, and there is no appeal and no real goovernment. When a person stole something and two people say that he did the Taliban cut off his hand without searching. Trade disputes are also decided like this.
Living under Taliban law is like living in hell.
