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Everyone knows that the Taliban in Afghanistan discriminated against women. How about when a journalist confronts some male members of the Taliban during the peace talks to interview them?
And when the interviewer doesn’t want to talk to a journalist or someone who doesn’t look you in the eye, how do you talk to her? Shazia Haya, from the British media, traveled to Doha, Qatar, to cover the historic peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government. He has leaked the background of what is happening there.
“I am not a murderer, but I have been portrayed as a murderer,” said Shazia Haya, a key Taliban leader. I will not talk about politics. Instead, take time to sit down with all of you. We will have tea together and I will listen to some of your poems.
Shazia did not expect a key Taliban leader to speak.
“On the last day of the historic Afghan government talks with militants in Doha, Qatar, I approached him with a request for an interview,” Shazia said.
Then I’ll go to the airport. Then I saw some members of the Taliban delegation in the hotel lobby. They are surrounded by journalists.
This is the last chance to get great information from him to write an excellent report. But he did not come to Doha to talk about poetry. Neither do I.
Shazia said it is always difficult to gather news about closed-door conversations. The beginning was not promising for us.
The Sheraton Hotel in Doha is located on the seafront. When I first arrived at the hotel, I saw Taliban leaders walking.
I put my bag on the floor and walked over to them. Then with an interview request.
Many times, if you can catch someone off guard, the word can get out. Instead of a carefully written press release, this is the only way to find a quote that can be used in a report.
The Taliban leader immediately said: “I will not speak.”
When I was actually walking towards him with the camera in hand, I was not expecting.
I noticed his discomfort and immediately backed away a bit.
I greeted him with a smile and told him that my male colleague would take the interview. I’ll be there to capture the camera.
It was becoming clear to me how difficult my job in Doha was going to be.
Don’t watch the eyes
In the end, however, I was able to interview the Taliban leader, who was reluctant to speak. But throughout the interview, I realized that he and the other Taliban leaders in his delegation were not watching me. It was clear that they were not as comfortable talking to men as they were to girls.
They believe that watching an unknown woman means disrespecting her. In their eyes, it is a sin.
I interviewed a Taliban leader for a full three minutes, but he never looked at me.
I really think that if you see me in the future, you won’t be able to remember that you gave me an interview.
But I was not surprised by any of this. The group that had been in hiding for many years, fighting, seeing them face to face, facing various questions, was also unimaginable a few months ago.
So I was prepared for many more unexpected events.
Historical events
The Afghan government and Taliban leaders have been in talks for months for such a face-to-face meeting. Their discussion has never been forward, never backward. In the end, they agreed on when and where the meeting would take place. At that time, like many other Afghan journalists, I felt that it was very important for me to cover this historic event.
After decades of bloodshed and bloodshed, the two sides finally agreed to end the war through negotiations.
A new story was unfolding before our eyes.
Since 2002, I have seen many events, many changes. After the fall of the Taliban, a new Afghanistan began. But the new government has to start fighting the Taliban again immediately.
But 17 years later, the two extreme enemies clash at the negotiating table.
What should I wear?
When the plane took off from Kabul to Doha, I was thinking about various aspects of this historic event. The fate of women free of women’s rights, beginning with the constitution of Afghanistan is a subject of discussion between the two parties.
I was thinking about how to get the news of this discussion. Who will I interview, what questions will I ask? Apart from these, a question also occurred to me.
What should I wear? I asked myself.
It’s not about my ego. Many male colleagues may not have that question on their minds.
But as a female journalist, I have to think about my clothing because of the strict Taliban rules on freedom and women’s rights. Although covered from head to toe. The clothes that girls go to the office in every day on the streets of Kabul, the clothes they don’t have to think about a second time, the clothes I wear.
I am here to interview the highest level leaders of the Taliban. The three days that I will be here, it is very important to meet them face to face.
Now that I am here in this outfit, 16 years ago it was not possible for me to walk in this outfit.
In Afghanistan, at the time, the Taliban imposed strict rules on girls’ clothing, forcing them to wear a blue headscarf (a hijab-like garment that covers women from head to toe). Those who did not use it were severely punished by the Taliban.
How much have they changed now, I wondered. How will they take me now?
‘It could be wrong’
Your position has become more flexible than before, I have good reason to expect it.
When I think I was four years old, one day I was going to my aunt’s house. My mother was with me, she wrapped herself in a sheet.
When we arrived, he took off the sheet and opened his mouth.
Then a Taliban came and beat him with a whip. In front of my eyes The man yelled, ‘Cover your face.’
Those memories of my childhood are etched in my mind. I will never forget that day of my life. When we entered my aunt’s house, I looked out the window and repeatedly asked my mother if the man was following us, following us.
When I was talking to a representative of the Taliban at the conference, I told him about the memory and asked how he would react.
He said that many mistakes have been made in the past and that these mistakes will not be repeated.
If this delegation from the Taliban goes to Kabul now, they will see a lot of changes.
One important change is the much more open presence of girls everywhere. Currently, at least 25 percent of the seats in parliament are held by women. They now have an important position in the media and in the world of entertainment. Many junior officers are working in government offices.
Back to school
And the change you will really see is the increasing participation of girls and women in education.
My family spent a few months in Pakistan. They returned after the United States invaded Afghanistan. Then the interim government came to power.
So I remember many educational advertisements in Kabul. One poster had a picture of a smiling boy and a girl going to school. The sign read: ‘Let’s study.’
My older sister was unable to study during the Taliban regime. But I asked my father if I could go to school and get on the school register.
There are now about a crore of students in Afghanistan, a large part of whom are girls.
If there is a peace treaty, which of these achievements should be sacrificed?
Suhail Shaheen is the spokesman for the Taliban political office in Qatar. I asked him, if he reaches a peace agreement and goes to Kabul, will it happen again? Can I stand in front of you with my camera and microphone in hand and ask you questions?
He smiled a little and replied, of course you can. But you have to wear hijab in the Islamic style.
Questions about freedom
In the corridors of the hotel, I noticed that when foreign women walked in different clothes, the Taliban representatives did not have such a headache. At the time, I was wondering if the Taliban would accept such an easy way if all women in Afghanistan wanted to live as they wanted.
The two sides will have the toughest negotiations on women’s rights and women’s emancipation in the ongoing peace talks in Doha.
The Afghan government delegation leading the talks has five female members. Those who have to sit at the negotiating table face to face are all men. The Taliban claim that girls must abide by Islamic Sharia law.
These women, who represent the Afghan government, have many other sensitive issues to discuss. The achievements of women in the last two decades, will they be respected? These will once again haunt the talks during the Taliban.
I asked another member of the Taliban delegation what his views were on women. The delegation is arguing on behalf of the Taliban, why isn’t there a woman?
“We have a lot of educated women,” he said. They work behind the scenes and don’t have time to come here.
He then said that if the girls wanted to work, the Taliban had no objection. They want girls to feel comfortable, to be respected.
“Not like you, you are getting tired of working as a journalist here,” he joked.
Generational gap
Something interesting caught my eye in Doha. Here are two generations within the Taliban. There are very heavy and serious old leaders sitting in the front row. In contrast, the young leaders seated in the last row are much simpler and more sociable.
When Mullah Baradar, the leader of the Taliban delegation, enters the conference room, he will immediately notice that the atmosphere is changing. Suddenly everyone seems to be numb. But when he’s gone, the members of the Taliban delegation seem much more normal.
I spoke with nine members of the Taliban delegation. It is much easier to talk to young members of the delegation. They are easy to find, they talk a lot and I am a journalist.
But young people or women have no role to play in the Taliban’s decision-making process. But the Taliban acknowledge that a large part of today’s Afghan population is young.
These young people are learning to read. They have internet, they have smartphones. They demand the right to speak about the future of their country.
But what does the future hold for them now?
From what I’ve seen in Doha, there may be some promising signs. But there is no denying that there are far more Taliban dressed as Taliban on the battlefield in Afghanistan than I have seen in Doha. There they continue to fight against the Afghan government.
Source: BBC Bangla
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