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By Abdul Qadir Sediqi
KABUL (Reuters) – The last thing 33-year-old Khatera saw were the three men on a motorcycle attacking her just after she left her job at a police station in Afghanistan’s central Ghazni province, shooting and stabbing her. with a knife. In the eyes.
When I woke up in the hospital, everything was dark.
“I asked the doctors, why can’t I see anything? They told me I’m still blindfolded from the wounds. But at that point, I knew they had taken my eyes off,” he said.
She and local authorities blame the attack on Taliban militants, who deny their involvement, and say the assailants acted on a tip from her father, who vehemently opposed her working outside the home.
For Khatera, the attack caused not only the loss of her sight, but also the loss of a dream she had fought for: to have an independent career. He joined the Ghazni Police as an officer in their criminal branch a few months ago.
“I wish I had served in the police for at least a year. If this had happened to me after that, it would have been less painful. It happened too soon … I was only able to work and live my dream for three months,” he added. he told Reuters.
The attack on Khatera, which uses only one name, is indicative of a growing trend, human rights activists say, of an intense and often violent backlash against women taking jobs, especially in public office. In Khatera’s case, being a policeman could also have enraged the Taliban.
Rights activists believe that a mix of Afghanistan’s conservative social norms and an emboldened Taliban gaining influence as the United States withdraws its troops from the country is fueling the escalation.
The Taliban are currently negotiating in Doha, Qatar, with the Afghan government to negotiate a peace deal in which many hope they will formally return to power, but progress is slow and there has been an increase in fighting and attacks on officials and women. prominent surrounding areas. the country.
In recent months, the Taliban have said they will respect women’s rights under Sharia law, but many educated women say they have doubts. The insurgent group has opposed a reform to add mothers’ names to identity cards, one of the first concrete positions they have revealed on the rights of women in their participation in the peace process.
“Although the situation for Afghan women in public office has always been dangerous, the recent increase in violence across the country has made things worse,” said Samira Hamidi, Amnesty International activist in Afghanistan. “The great strides made in women’s rights in Afghanistan over more than a decade must not become a victim of any peace deal with the Taliban.”
DASHED CHILD’S DREAM
Khatera’s dream as a child was to work outside the home and after years of trying to convince her father, without success, she was able to find her husband’s support.
But his father, he said, did not give in to his opposition.
“Many times when I was going to work, I saw my father following me … he started contacting the Taliban in the nearby area and asked them to stop me from going to work,” he said.
He said that he provided the Taliban with a copy of her identification card to show that she worked for the police and that he had called her throughout the day she was attacked, asking her location.
The Ghazni police spokesman confirmed that they believed the Taliban were behind the attack and that Khatera’s father had been detained. Reuters was unable to reach him directly for comment.
A Taliban spokesman said the group was aware of the case, but that it was a family matter and that they were not involved.
Khatera and her family, including five children, are now hiding in Kabul, where she is recovering and mourning the race she lost.
She has trouble falling asleep, jumps when she hears a motorcycle, and has had to cut off contact with her extended family, including her mother, who blames her for her father’s arrest. He desperately hopes that a doctor abroad can somehow partially restore his sight.
“If possible, I get my sight back, go back to my job and serve in the police force again,” he said, adding that he partly needed an income to avoid homelessness. “But the main reason is my passion for doing work outside the home.”
(Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi; additional reporting by Orooj Hakimi and Charlotte Greenfield; written by Charlotte Greenfield; edited by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
