Girls of Kandahar

DR | 23min
Postproduction script

00:00:12:17 VO: Taliban fighters stroll the warm summer parks of Kabul without a care in the world. Their Islamic Emirate is rolling out rigid rules and regulations similar to those in place during their terror regime in the 1990s. Here, there are no women in the park.

00:00:29:09 Puk Damsgård: -Yes, it's men's day I see. There are some Talibans over by the roses.

00:00:35:04 VO: While the decrees from the Taliban suffocate women's lives, one man is fighting to give voice to the Afghan girls.

00:00:41:13 Matiullah Wesa: -Have you read your lessons?

00:00:42:15 Girls: -Yes.

Matiullah: -Raise your hands if you have.

00:00:49:05 Young girl: -A, B, C, D...

00:00:57:22 Matiullah: -Right now I have 35 secret schools. They are especially for women. We fight for that.

00:01:04:14 VO: From Kabul to the Taliban stronghold in the villages of Kandahar, we follow Afghans who are sacrificing themselves for the future, while the darkness of extremism once again draws over Afghanistan.

00:01:26:12 Saba Chaman: So we are going to see the working space for Radio Begum staff, which has been segregated after the Taliban came. This huge curtain was put here after the regime changed. We were sat upstairs but then we shifted and we put this curtain to make sure that everything is segregated. Here is where all the women staff of Radio Begum sit.

1’44 Saba Chaman, Manager, Radio Begum

00:01:53:10 VO: Radio Begum is still on air. The radio station is run by women for women. It airs information and advice shows. After the ascent of the Taliban, the radio has stopped playing music. And it's apolitical.

00:02:09:13 Saba: That space that you see there, we’d made it for Radio Begum’s political talk show before the change of regime. We used to invite women political leaders and women in the government to talk to them about their role in the government and the role they do. But now most of them are not here, or if they are they’re too afraid to come. So we’ve stopped this programme.

00:02:33:10 Puk: There is no women in politics, so who to invite?

00:02:39:01 Saba: Exactly, so that’s unusable for now, it’s no more.

00:02:44:04 VO: Every morning, a host and psychologist answer questions from women from the provinces who call the show 'Shortcut to Happiness'. It is livestreamed on Facebook, and the Taliban therefore demands the hosts cover their faces.

00:02:59:02 Radio host: -Marzia you are calling from Bamyan, hope you are good. So you've heard today's topic, do you have a view on it or a question?

00:03:09:04 Marzia on the line: -I am eager to learn and study but when I sit and study, my parents tell me to go and do housework. And that housework is the only useful thing to learn. Education will never be useful for you, they say. But I feel very useless, so I call you to ask your opinion.

00:03:24:24 Radio host: -How old are you?

00:03:28:18 Marzia on the line: -Thirteen.

00:03:31:03 Psychologist: -You are a valuable person, you are not useless. You are precious; be firm on what you like.

00:03:37:06 Radio host: -She is not the only one with this issue. Often girls are told to do housework before studying because when you get married, the only thing that will be useful for you is knowing house stuff.

00:03:48:21 Saba: This is a space for women where they can express their freedom, they can raise their voice, discuss their limitations in the way that women have been stopped from appearing in many social areas in Afghanistan. So this space is more necessary.

00:04:08:08 VO: Radio Begum works as a breathing space for Afghan women during a time where the Taliban is manifesting its power. Older girls are prohibited from attending school. Women can't travel far without being escorted by a man. In many places, women are kept from working. In Kandahar, barbers are banned from trimming beards, and women can't sit in the front seat of cars. The law is similar to the Taliban's first rule of Afghanistan from 1996-2001. The symbol of the terror regime was the public executions on the penalty spot in Kabul's football stadium. Today sport and competition is still played in the stadium.

00:04:47:16 Puk: -It's the men's First Division football today. Wrestlers, boxers and runners are using the stadium to train. The only difference is that it's the Taliban flag flying over the stadium. And there's a lot of concern among Afghans whether the scenes from the 90s will repeat here in the stadium.

00:05:10:05 Football coach: -Saïd, Saïd, Where are you? No matter what, just focus on your playing!

00:05:18:11 VO: Back then, the foreign minister of the Taliban wanted the West to help finance the bloodshed of the Taliban. Today, the Taliban is again requesting help from the world. The emirate wants to be recognised and the Afghans rely on humanitarian aid from the UN to mitigate hunger and economic crises. Perhaps that is the reason why the Taliban still tolerate visits from international reporters, while Afghan media is closed or converted into Taliban propaganda outlets. Afghan journalists risk persecution if they don't fall in line. Many new rules are aimed at women in particular, however.

00:05:59:02 Puk: -It's a banner from the Ministry of Vice and Virtue. It shows how women are to cover themselves following a new decree.

00:06:09:17 VO: We visit the spokesman for the Ministry for Vice and Virtue: in plain English the Ministry for Morality, which also existed during the last Taliban rule.

00:06:20:13 Puk to Aqif: The new decree for women’s hijab: will you explain that for me, what exactly that is?

00:06:28:18 Aqif Mujahir: Hijab rules are very clear in the Qur'an and Hadith. It is not our law. It is the law of God. And we are delivering this message and practice to the people. Islamic hijab is that women are covered from head to toe. Your hijab is good, but it would have been better if you had covered your face with a scarf. If you could cover more of your hair and put on a mask that would be perfect.

6’30 Aqif Kujahir, Spokesman, Ministry for Vice and Virtue

00:07:20:07 VO: It's Friday, and men's day in the parks of Kabul. Three days a week are for women. Four are for men.

00:07:27:15 Puk: -It's a little unusual: I can only enter because I'm a foreigner. Afghan women wouldn't be allowed in now. It means you can't go to the park as a family, because it's either mum with the kids or dad with the kids. And it seems like the fathers have brought more guns than children today.

00:07:56:04 VO: The ministry for morality have deployed a team of Islamic scholars dressed in white cloth to parks, schools, mosques and other public places to make sure that people are living by the rules.

00:08:10:12 Puk: What does your team do if the woman says she feels she’s already following Islamic rules, if she only covers her hair and not her face. What does the team then do?

00:08:22:22 Aqif: We don't stop women to tell them there is an issue with her hijab. We call her husband, father or brother, and they are first advised that she shouldn't wear this. The second time it happens, they should come to the police station. For the third time he would be put in jail for three days. The fourth time, she is brought to court.

8’23 Aqif Kujahir, Spokesman, Ministry for Vice and Virtue

00:08:49:13 VO: The Taliban has closed public schools for girls in year 7 to 12, the only country in the world to do so. Despite promises to reopen, older school girls are still at home.

00:09:04:07 Puk in car: -We are about to meet a woman, Rahilla, who teaches girls in a secret school.

00:09:13:16 VO: In December, Horisont visited Rahilla's home school. But something must have happened since.

9’17 Archive: Kabul, December 2021

00:09:20:04 Puk in car: -The other day she wrote to me that she simply didn't dare to meet in her home. So we've found this place where it's hopefully safe to meet her.

00:09:41:15 Puk: -Hello, how are you?

00:09:49:13 Puk to Rahilla: We from Danish TV met you, my colleague met you in your school at home. Why can we not meet there today?

00:10:01:10 Rahilla: -After your first visit, the Taliban issued a new rule, that all schools were banned and no one can study at home. And if anyone has home classes then they would be taken to court.

10’08 Rahilla, Teacher

00:10:15:15 VO: At the beginning of this year, Taliban raided private homes all over Kabul. They also came through Rahilla's street. Therefore, she's cut down on the number of students. Only the neighbours' girls are able to sneak into Rahilla's living room to study.

00:10:31:04 Puk: So they’re actually coming through doors in the walls between the compounds?

Rahilla: No, they’re jumping over the walls.

00:10:39:01 VO: History is repeating itself. When Rahilla was a child during Taliban rule in the 1990s, she too jumped walls to secretly study at her neighbour's.

10’39 Archive: Kabul, December 2021

00:10:48:16 Rahilla: -After 25 years, nothing has changed. We still have to jump over the walls to go to a secret classroom to study.

00:11:22:06 Puk in car: -We've arrived in Kandahar, the province where the Taliban was born. We are on our way far, far out in the countryside. To the tiny villages, where we are meeting a special Afghan man.

00:11:46:07 Matiullah: -The majority of our people don't have access to basic fundamental rights. They are uneducated. And some groups say education is haram in Islam.

00:11:58:04 VO: Matiullah Wesa is a rare breed in the conservative, traditional Kandahar. He's an outspoken educator and activist, who has fought for rights to education and access to knowledge since 2009.

00:12:15:02 Matiullah: -This is our public library in Kandahar in the Spin Boldak district. I have 40 libraries around Afghanistan. It's just for people to study the rights of children, the rights of women, the rights of people. We want to change our society, our people's minds to support education,  women's rights, children's rights. Thousands of people don't have access to school. Some people have problems, like girls' education: there's so many challenges in this area in Afghanistan, especially in remote areas. But I change our people, thanks to the public libraries, and every day we focus on that to change our people, so they will study and then allow girls to go to school. We have different styles, like this is the history of Afghanistan. And these are Pashto books, like Pashto grammar, and also this is geography.

12’19 Matiullah Wesa, Education activist

00:13:17:01 Puk to Matiullah: And now we talk about history. We seem to have forgotten that women had a different role in Afghan society not so long ago.

00:13:27:10 Matiullah: -They say people here don't respect women. But it is wrong, and a mistake. 40, 45 years ago, I am from Kandahar Marouf district, our parliament member was a woman.

00:13:40:24 Puk: -45 years ago?

00:13:42:13 Matiullah: -Yes, under Shah regime, our people voted for a woman. If we think of that,  we are very different from that time now. 45 years ago, our people supported women in parliament. But right now we don't have any.

00:14:02:00 VO: Matiullah's father was a progressive tribal leader and he founded the school Matiullah attended as a child.

00:14:09:05 Matiullah: -One day, I went to school. We started class, and after an hour militants with masks came to the front of our school. They burned the picture of the Afghan president and books and the Afghan national flag. They used bad words to our teachers and students. One evening some militants came to our house. They talked to my father. They told him, if you teach girls' education again, we will kill you. Here is my father. He was the founder of girls' education in our area.

00:14:51:17 VO: The family had to move from the district, and when Matiullah attended high school in Kabul in 2008, he and his brother had the idea for their educational project called Pen Path.

00:15:02:13 Matiullah: In Kabul I saw girls and boys in the street going to school, every day I was thinking about that. The girls are going to school. The boys are going to school. But in our area there is no school.

00:15:15:14 VO: But Matiullah has changed that. Spread out in private homes, a network of female volunteers teach girls of all ages. They are not official schools, but they follow the state's curriculum.

00:15:30:22 Puk: -We can't you show the teacher or the location, or the girls other than from behind their colourful veils, but there's education going on in here every morning and afternoon.

00:15:43:17 VO: Matiullah couldn't have chosen a more difficult place to be an educational activist. The Kandahar province is something else. The current leadership of the Taliban is from Kandahar. It was in this mosque in a small village that the one-eyed mullah Omar founded the Taliban movement in 1994.

00:16:04:15 Abdulahad: -Take off your shoes and come in.

00:16:11:02 Puk: -We are entering the mosque of mullah Omar. The founder of the Taliban. Someone is praying so I don't want to speak.

00:16:30:01 Abdulahad: -He used to pray here. He was imam at this mosque. His friends were also with him. He had good manners. He was very disciplined and a kind and firm person.

16’35 Abdulahad, Tribal elders

00:16:49:11 Puk: -The elders in the village tell us that it was under this mulberry tree that mullah Omar made his decisions. He sat under the tree.

00:17:04:09 VO: Matiullah's mobile school for girls and boys goes where there are no schools. Today, it's headed to an isolated village.

00:17:13:14 Matiullah to friend: -Great... you have brought this. How are you?

00:17:22:03 Matiullah: -I have two types of campaign right now under Taliban rule. One is the campaign to get people to pressure Taliban to reopen girls' schools in all parts of Afghanistan. The second one is that in the last 20 years we have some areas with no schools. Right now we need to focus on those areas and reach out to the people, increase pressure to the international community to register new schools.

00:18:10:16 Women in video: -Why are you shouting at us? Let us talk. You cannot silence our voices.

00:18:16:11 VO: In Kabul, the room for protest and demonstrations is decreasing. The few women who still dare to speak out against Taliban rule, risk prison. Still, Monesa Muberez shows her anger towards the rulers. Therefore, she has to live in constant hiding.

00:18:37:19 Monesa: -All our demonstrations are arranged through WhatsApp, and on demonstration days we go out of the house in different clothes until we arrive at the area. Of course it's quite tough, we cannot live at one address, we have to hide. On a daily basis I go to different places like family or friends' homes. And when I go back home, I go a different route, and I change transport as well as cars.

18’41 Monesa Muberez, Activist

00:19:11:24 Puk to Monesa: Where are the men? Why are the men not supporting the women?

00:19:18:19 Monesa: -It's from all the Afghan men. I am upset they don't support us. I have wondered one thing, and I hope I am wrong. Do Afghan men have the same view about women as the Taliban do?

00:19:38:10 VO: Monesa's activist friends have been jailed and silenced. So before leaving us, she goes to the bathroom to change clothes. To transform herself into someone else, not recognisable to the Taliban. Soon it will only be on the airwaves, on Radio Begum's 90.1 FM frequency, that women's voices break through.

00:20:01:11 Radio host: -Hello.

00:20:03:14 Leena on the line: -I am Leena from Ghazni. I am one of the children who has never been supported by family and I'm still facing this issue. I studied till 6th grade and then I couldn't go to school because of family issues and my father was sick.

00:20:35:11 VO: In the most remote villages in Kandahar, Matiullah takes his mobile school to campaign for girls' right to education. Together with local elders he speaks out loudly about the need for education. The campaign videos are shared on social media - not without risk.

00:20:53:06 Matiullah to crowd: -In the whole Spin Boldak district we don't have a female dentist. If our mother, sister or nieces, or any female family member gets sick, where will we take her? If you have toothache you have to go to the dentist, but where? If there isn't any female dentist, would you take her to a male? None of you would. This is our responsibility and these girls will be our future leaders. Let's come together and raise our voice for them.

21’07 Matiullah Wesa, Education activist

00:21:24:11 Matiullah to crowd: Raise your hands, who can read it? Take it and read it aloud. And you all read aloud after her.

00:21:39:02 Young girl: -In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate... P. Popal… Popal has a ball. Popal plays with the ball.

00:21:51:22 Matiullah: -I got some threats, I've been to jail three times. And I've had some unknown people calling me saying they will kill me, giving me one week, stop your activities.

00:22:06:06 Young girl 2: -A, B, C, D, E, F, G...

00:22:15:02 VO: Matiullah's weapon is not a rifle. Instead, he's armed with cohesion for the people. He forms alliances with the village elders, who, like his father once wished for, want education for both their sons and daughters.

00:22:30:01 Matiullah: -If I have some problems with the Taliban in the district or in the province, I will talk with the tribal leader and scholars who will talk with them to solve the problem for me.

00:22:46,930 VO: This afternoon, a group of girls were happy that the mobile school passed their way. Matiullah spreads a small hope, in the only country in the world where teenage girls are not allowed to go to school.

00:23:02,215 Matiullah: -Every day we put pressure in meetings with people, we say to people 'please pressure the government', 'please allow girls schools'. Because it is our human right. It's our basic right. It's our Islamic right.

CREDITS:

Correspondent: Puk Damsgård

Photo/editing: Mads Køngerskov

Music: Audio Network

Editor: Jacob Basbøll

Program Manager: Niels Kvale