TIMECODED
SCRIPT
The
War on Afghan Women
TIMECODE |
DIALOGUE |
00:00:00 |
This
program contains material that may be distressing to some viewers. |
00:00:10 |
KARISHMA VYAS:
It was supposed to
be a new dawn for Afghan women… After years of being terrorised by the
Taliban….they celebrated when the US overthrew the
brutal regime…. |
00:00:28 |
PRESIDENT
GEORGE W. BUSH: “We will not tire,
we will not falter and we will not fail.” |
00:00:36 |
KARISHMA VYAS: But after 18 years and tens of
thousands of casualties...the war rages on…. And the Taliban insurgency is stronger than
ever.... |
00:00:48 |
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: “The American people are weary of war
without victory.” |
00:00:55 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: Desperate
to withdraw its troops...the US is now negotiating a peace deal that could
see the group return to power… along with its violent repression of women. |
00:01:09 |
LAILA HAIDARI: “As the people who have signed the death sentence of many women,
I have no expectations of the Taliban.” |
00:01:17 |
KARISHMA VYAS: 101 East investigates if Afghan women will pay the price for peace in their war-torn country. |
00:01:27 |
101
EAST LOGO |
00:01:31 |
THE
WAR ON AFGHAN WOMAN – A film by Karishma Vyas |
00:01:57 |
LAILA
HAIDARI: Stop talking crap! Stop
talking crap! (Cop) - Don’t film. (Laila) Do you think they’re filming you?
You’re going to get kidnapped tomorrow!” |
00:01:58 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: Driving
with Laila Haidari through Kabul’s traffic can be stressful… Mostly for other motorists… |
00:02:13 |
LAILA HAIDARI: “Damn your father, you dog.” |
00:02:17 |
KARISHMA VYAS: Her methods aren’t exactly legal…. but then …. this
is a war zone. |
00:02:23 |
LAILA
HAIDARI: “Nobody has a license. I
don’t even have a license.” -“(L)
Police! Police! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” |
00:02:42 |
KARISHMA VYAS: Out on these congested roads, Laila
never fails to cause a scene. It might be the cursing… |
00:02:51 |
LAILA HAIDARI: “What an idiot! ” |
00:02:53 |
KARISHMA VYAS: Or it might be that you rarely see a
woman driving here ... especially one without a head scarf. |
00:02:59 |
VYAS: “How do people react when they see
you driving?” HAIDARI: “They curse at you, tell you
you’re a whore. It’s very upsetting because all you’re doing is driving.” |
00:03:16 |
KARISHMA VYAS: But
when it comes to a fight… Laila is not one to back down. To her…. driving isn’t just a
convenience…. In Afghanistan, it’s an act of defiance. |
00:03:28 |
LAILA
HAIDARI: “It’s a jungle here, a jungle. If you live with wolves, you’ll
become a wolf. Since I’m living with
people who don’t follow the law, I’ll do the same.” |
00:03:37 |
KARISHMA VYAS: But it’s not just these streets
that have made Laila tough. For 10 years, she has worked on the
frontlines of an epidemic that few are bold enough to take on…. |
00:03:49 |
VYAS PTC: “We’re driving around looking for drug addicts on
the streets of Kabul so that Laila can take them back to her rehab center.
It’s pretty dangerous work but she does it all the time.” |
00:04:07 |
KARISHMA VYAS: -“There’s a little
crowd of drug addicts here.” HAIDARI: “Who wants to get treatment? I
can take you to rehab. (addict shaking head) No, we’re not going.” |
00:04:26 |
VYAS:
Under a bridge in broad daylight, we spot dozens of users. |
00:04:35 |
HAIDARI:
-“Below it’s really dangerous. So I’ll go and you film from here.” VYAS: “OK” |
00:04:52 |
HAIDARI: Boys, we take sick people to rehab. Who
wants to go?” “(addict) What kind of sick people? (L)
Sick people like you.” |
00:05:05 |
KARISHMA VYAS: One of the men sees us filming and starts throwing
rocks… but Laila pushes on. |
00:05:17 |
HAIDARI: “What’s happening? Look at the
conditions here. Oh my God.” |
00:05:22 |
KARISHMA VYAS: Suddenly…she spots a young man she’s already
treated... several times. |
00:05:27 |
HAIDARI:
“Keep using, keeping using until…Get lost! You’re never going to become a real
person.” |
00:05:38 |
KARISHMA VYAS: This work is not for the meek… But
in Afghanistan, a woman doing this job is so offensive to some that people
have attempted to kill her… She had to fight off two men who broke
into her home and tried to strangle her in her sleep. Another time, she was attacked in what
she thought was a taxi. |
00:06:01 |
HAIDARI: “The people in the back pulled the
scarf around my neck and strangled me. I thought I was finished.” -“The
driver took a weapon from the glove compartment and said, ‘If you don’t stop
your work, it’s this easy for us to kill you’.” |
00:06:17 |
KARISHMA VYAS: But Laila didn’t stop. In fact…she
doubled down. |
00:06:22 |
HAIDARI:
-“Society expects me to stay at home, have
children, be a good host, and no man should hear my voice. I have just one
life and I don’t want to live the way society wants.” |
00:06:41 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: It’s a choice she
wouldn’t have had 18 years ago when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan. Under its regime, women were not seen or
heard… They were forced to wear the burqa, and were banned from schools and jobs. And if they broke these rules…. they
were flogged and sometimes executed. |
00:07:04 |
HAIDARI: “We’ve gambled with our lives, minute by
minute. Why? Because we want women to have a place in society.” |
00:07:18 |
KARISHMA VYAS: To show me how much things have changed …. Laila
and her friends take me to a place so taboo... it was completely banned by
the Taliban... It’s…
a bowling alley. Not exactly the hotbed of vice I was expecting. But
not that long ago… all of us would’ve been publicly flogged just for being
here. |
00:07:45 |
VYAS: “Could you do something like this
18 years ago in Kabul?” “(Soha) We didn’t dare. We couldn’t go
out the way we can now.” “(Soha) The way we dress has changed.
Back then we couldn’t go out like this.” |
00:08:00 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: And, they tell me, that’s not the only change… |
00:08:06 |
SOUND UP: “(Samira) Women’s
participation in society, in government and non-government offices has
increased. Women are going to colleges, they’re in business. They work,
they’re independent.” |
00:08:21 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: But now women fear that these freedoms may not last for much longer. Rumors
are rife that the Taliban could come back into government as part of a deal
negotiated with the US. |
00:08:35 |
VYAS: “What would the Taliban think of you
guys, Laila?.... (HAIDARI )
If they captured us, they’d kill us. They’d say, ‘Look at the way they look.
Look at what they do in society’.” |
00:08:47 |
HAIDARI:“As an Afghan, I’m shocked. The Americans
introduced democracy, human rights, women’s rights to us, and encouraged us
to defend them. But they’re telling us that now the Taliban is legit? How
has the Taliban changed. Was all this talk of human
rights, women’s rights, democracy – was it just a game?” |
00:09:10 |
VYAS:
Laila is not the only one outraged by these peace talks. Under the hashtag My Red Line, women are
taking to social media to defend their rights. |
00:09:21 |
HAIDARI: “As a woman, my red line is to be able
to drive under any circumstances.” |
00:09:28 |
SOUND-UP: -“I am a
journalist. I will be a journalist. My red line is my pen and my freedom of
expression.” |
00:09:36 |
VYAS:
There are athletes, musicians, mothers…all coming together to make it clear
that their freedom isn’t up for negotiation. |
00:09:45 |
VYAS: But
in a country so scarred by war …. are women’s rights a luxury that only
urban, affluent Afghans can afford to care about? |
00:09:53 |
SOUND-UP: “Gender equality is my red
line.” |
00:09:58 |
To
find out …I head to the northern province of Balkh. |
00:10:03 |
SOUND-UP: -“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mazar-e-Sharif. The local time
here is 11:50 in the morning.” |
00:10:13 |
VYAS:
Mazar-e-sharif is a much smaller…. much more conservative city than Kabul. There
are definitely no bowling alleys here.
And in public at least…many women still wear the burqa. I’m
here to meet lawyer Najia Sadiq…. But
catching her isn’t easy. |
00:10:51 |
SOUND-UP: “Ms Gulalai, this case has been closed.
I’ve just brought it to you so you can do the mediation work.” |
00:11:00 |
KV: Right
now she’s juggling 17 cases…. defending women who have fled abusive families
and forced marriages. |
00:11:09 |
NAJIA SADIQ: “If I talk, will you
listen? Will you listen calmly? Will you not shout? If you don’t trust or
love each other, if the marriage is forced, then you don’t have a future.
Understand this.” |
00:11:22 |
VYAS: Najia
works for an NGO called Women for Afghan Women … which runs secret shelters. |
00:11:33 |
SADIQ: “Most of the cases we have are connected
to domestic violence and family issues. Women want the relatives who have
abused them to be punished.” |
00:11:45 |
VYAS:
Many here fear for their lives. For
their protection, we’ve changed their names. |
00:11:51 |
FATIMA: “I’ve been married for 12 years.
I stayed for the sake of my kids, for the sake of my life.” |
00:11:57 |
VYAS:
Today, Najia is meeting with her client ‘Fatima’ and her husband… ‘Fatima’
says her husband is violent, and that his uncle sexually harasses her …
accusations he denies. |
00:12:09 |
FATIMA: ”I’m not a dog, I’m a person. I
can tolerate this for one day, two days, three days. (husband) - She’s never gone hungry. SADIQ: Speak when it’s your turn.” |
00:12:23 |
VYAS:
‘Fatima’ has tried to leave him before…. |
00:12:26 |
FATIMA: “His mother let slip that if I
didn’t return that morning, he was going to take lorry full of men to my
sister’s house and rape her, her son and her daughter-in-law. I’m not going
back anymore. My dead body might go back, but not while I’m alive.” |
00:12:46 |
VYAS:
Despite Najia’s best efforts...this meeting is going nowhere… |
00:12:52 |
FATIMA: “You want to take me to prison? I’m
ready! SADIQ: No one’s going to prison right now.” (husband) - I’m not going to leave you.
Men rule over women. Women don’t rule men.” SADIQ: “Thank you, listen. Don’t say men
rule women and women don’t rule men. (Husband) I’m just giving you an
example. SADIQ: OK, look. You have your rights
and responsibilities... and she has her rights and responsibilities.” |
00:13:18 |
KARISHMA VYAS: ‘Fatima’s’ husband says he will never agree to a
separation. She’ll have to take him to court. |
00:13:26 |
FATIMA: “For three months last winter
his damn uncle slept in the same room as me.” SADIQ:“Don’t worry, we can press charges
against his uncle too if you want.” |
00:13:36 |
KARISHMA VYAS: But it’s her three children that ‘Fatima’ is
worried about. Under Afghan law, she’ll lose custody if
she leaves. |
00:13:46 |
SADIQ: “OK, don’t cry. It’s not the
solution. I want to separate. It’s better to die once than to die every
day.” |
00:13:59 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: Najia knows her client is in a desperate situation. She also knows it could be much worse. |
00:14:08 |
SADIQ:
“These women that we help now as defense attorneys, they would never have
been able to raise their voice under the Taliban.” |
00:14:17 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: Najia says she’ll never forget what life was like under the brutal
regime. She was only 12 when Taliban fighters seized her city… |
00:14:27 |
SADIQ:
“We weren’t allowed to go outside without a male guardian. Girls aged from
12 or 13 had to wear the burqa. School and college was forbidden for girls.
Under the Taliban we were in complete darkness. We didn’t know about women’s
rights. That they could separate from their husbands. Or punish the people
who were violent towards them.” |
00:14:52 |
SADIQ: “Eileen,
honey, Eileen! My soul. Honey, honey. My soul.” |
00:15:03 |
SADIQ:
Najia now has a daughter of her own...and another baby on the way. She
says this is why she...and so many women...are worried that the Taliban may
come back into power. |
00:15:15 |
SADIQ: “I was just a child and it was so
traumatic. I don’t want my children to go through this. So I’m fighting for
my kids, for their future and for the future of this country.” |
00:15:30 |
VYAS:
Right now one of her most pressing cases is ‘Yasmin’. |
00:15:36 |
SADIQ:
“Have you gotten used to being here?
Are you comfortable?” |
00:15:42 |
VYAS:
She has run away from her father … and a forced marriage. It’s up to Najia
now to protect her using the law. |
00:15:51 |
YASMIN:“He cocked his gun and put it against my
head and said, ‘Why don’t you want to marry him? You have to marry him’.
There were tiles on the kitchen floor. He grabbed me by the hair and banged
my head against the floor again and again. Then he locked me in, and my
older brother came. He hit me in the eye and it became swollen. Then he
punched me in my mouth and broke six of my teeth. They were in pieces.” |
00:16:23 |
VYAS:
Najia says ‘Yasmin’ is fortunate that she could reach the shelter. That’s
not always possible. |
00:16:29 |
KARISHMA VYAS: -“In areas controlled by
the Taliban are you able to help women who are maybe suffering from
violence?...(N) We cannot help them because we don’t know about the violence
there, what’s going on there.” SADIQ: “It looks like everything is OK there. It
looks like this. Because the woman doesn’t have any right, don’t have any
right to raise their voice. So if you don’t hear something, how can you help
someone?” |
00:16:55 |
VYAS: Today...roughly half of Afghanistan is
under the Taliban's control. We don’t know how they’re treating
women in these areas... because it’s too dangerous for us to go. But a confidential source close to the
Taliban said he could help us investigate… After days of careful planning he was
able to film this extraordinary footage...and smuggle it to us through
government check-points. It’s from a district in Ghazni
province, which fell to the Taliban years ago. |
00:17:35 |
SOUND-UP:
“My message is that I’m a holy fighter. I’m not someone who gets tired of
fighting so we’ll continue. We won’t accept defeat.” |
00:17:50 |
VYAS: Here… we see fighters carrying AK47s and RPGs...
parading through the district. We hear from Taliban-appointed judges
running their own courts... What we don’t see in any of the
footage is a single woman… |
00:18:13 |
JUDGE USMANI: “Afghan women are the pride of the
people of Afghanistan. Whatever we want for ourselves, we also want that for
our sisters.” |
00:18:20 |
VYAS: Their spokesman...Mansoor Ghaznavi...tells us that girls in the
area are allowed to go to school. |
00:18:28 |
MANSOOR
GHAZNAVI: “We do have female madrassas in our district but they have to wear
the hijab. Even in the future when we’re in government, we’ll allow them to
go to school according to Sharia
law.” |
00:18:40 |
VYAS:
This might sound like progress...until you dig a little deeper…. |
00:18:46 |
GHAZNAVI: “Sharia law only allows women to wear
the full hijab and to always be accompanied by a male relative. Because in
the Koran it says that women should stay at home, and if they have to go
out, they should be with a male relative.” VYAS:
Our contact presses him to be more specific -asking ‘will women have the
right to work, study and marry whoever they want?’ GHAZNAVI:
I can’t answer this question.” |
00:19:19 |
VYAS: But we track down a young woman who
can answer. |
00:19:25 |
MASUDA:
“My area is totally controlled by the Taliban…They forced young girls into
marriage. They burnt down the school. There was a medical clinic, but they
burnt that down too.” |
00:19:40 |
VYAS:
At first, ‘Masuda’ says girls still tried to go to school…but it didn’t last
long. |
00:19:47 |
MASUDA:
“One day the Taliban came to my school and took a girl out and shot her,
because she liked a boy. She was bleeding all over her body. We all screamed
and ran away.” |
00:20:00 |
VYAS:
‘Masuda’ was forced to marry when she was just 12. She
says her husband beat her and her father-in-law demanded sex. She’s
now in hiding…. but insurgents in her area have ordered her to come back. |
00:20:16 |
MASUDA:
“The Taliban said they’ll control all of Afghanistan soon anyway. Then
they’ll execute me. They’re calling me from my mum’s phone. She’s begging me
to come back. She says if you love me, you should come back. If I go back,
they’ll kill me. If I don’t, they’ll kill my family.” |
00:20:42 |
KARISHMA
VYAS: Throughout the peace talks with the US, the Taliban has insisted that
it has changed, and that it will uphold women’s rights. |
00:20:52 |
VYAS:
But these videos taken in areas under their control tell a different story.
In this footage…. Taliban fighters are shown executing a woman accused of
adultery. These
women were gunned down in the dead of night on a dirt road...because the
Taliban thought they were prostitutes. And
this video from earlier this year shows a woman being publicly lashed …for
singing and dancing. |
00:21:37 |
FAWZIA
KOOFI: “Even if they have changed truly, even if you believe them for what
they say, it’s very unlikely that they actually impose what they say on
their foot soldiers in Afghanistan.” |
00:21:49 |
VYAS:
Politician Fawzia Koofi is one of the few Afghan women to meet the Taliban
face-to-face during the peace negotiations held in Russia and Qatar. |
00:22:00 |
KOOFI:
“Speaking in Moscow, in a five star hotel is much more easier than actually
practicing it in Afghanistan in the rural villages through your foot
soldiers who are not educated. What they have heard through the years of
fighting is hate towards women, hate towards society, killing, murder. How
do you change those perspectives?” |
00:22:22 |
VYAS:
But Fawzia saves her harshest criticism for the US ... which she says has
failed to follow through on a war that it began. |
00:22:31 |
KOOFI:
-“You know the West came to Afghanistan not just because they wanted to save
us. They came to Afghanistan after the 9/11 attack happened in New York. So
they actually came to Afghanistan partly to save their own soil from
terroristic attack. Now, just because the Americans want to leave, we just
ignore the women?” |
00:22:55 |
VYAS:
It’s a question only the US government can answer...and they did not agree
to speak to us. What
is clear is that after the death of tens of thousands of people… many view a
peace deal with the Taliban as a stunning betrayal. |
00:23:13 |
LAILA
HAIDARI: “All those American and NATO soldiers who’ve been killed, they
weren’t fighting me. I didn’t kill them. They were fighting the Taliban. The
same Taliban that you’re now going to bring back into power.” |
00:23:30 |
VYAS:
Laila says the fate of
her country and its women has never been more uncertain… But…..she also has a warning for the
West... |
00:23:40 |
HAIDARI:
“If American politicians can play with the future of Afghan women like this,
then they can make the same deal for their own women. It’s possible. So
American women need to stay vigilant, because their politicians can trade
away their freedom too.” |
00:24:03 |
VYAS:
On my last day with her, Laila takes me to a place she often visits on the
outskirts of Kabul... |
00:24:11 |
HAIDARI:
“Usually this place isn’t very crowded
and women can feel free here. There’s no one to bother them. We feel like we
can breathe here.” |
00:24:25 |
VYAS:
She says like most Afghans, she’s desperate for peace …..but not at any
cost. |
00:24:33 |
HAIDARI:
“I don’t want my children to ask me, ‘What did you do when the Taliban
came?’ I can’t tell them that I ran away. This is not peace, not for me, or
for any woman.” |
00:24:53 |
[AL JAZEERA] |
00:25:00 |
[End] |