Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are reporting with JURIST on the situation there after the Taliban takeover. Here, an Afghan law student reports on the growing number and severity of Taliban restrictions on women since August 2021. For privacy and security reasons, we withhold our correspondent’s name. The text has only been slightly edited to respect the author’s voice. It has been just over 8 months since the Taliban took over Afghanistan. 245 days have passed. During this time, the Taliban have committed all kinds of violence, torture and crimes against women and their rights, from closing girls’ schools to arresting female protesters and imposing severe restrictions. In the early days of the new Taliban government in Afghanistan, many women were laid off from their jobs. For example, women from the Herat Department of Education were fired and forced to stay home. As a result, many female-headed households lost their income and misfortune befell them. After that, the Taliban imposed other restrictions. For example, they prevented women from driving in the city and instructed taxi drivers in Kabul not to take women without hijabs and women without Maharram. [male chaperones] for long distances. At the University of Herat, the paintings of all the female teachers and students were removed from the walls of the faculties, and even the painting of Rabia Balkhi, the poet of Afghanistan, was not spared. When economic hardship hit its worst, the Taliban cut teachers’ (and all government employees’) salaries, adding to everyone’s misery. When many women ran out of patience, a group of protesters with the slogan “bread, work, freedom” began to protest and demonstrate in Kabul against the Taliban. This group continued its activities in the city for some time, including holding demonstrations, posting several videos, and writing slogans on the walls of Kabul. This group was repeatedly confronted with pepper spray, tear gas and gun threats until a video was released one night of the forcible arrest of Tamana Paryani, the leader of her team, and a few other female protesters. Fear gripped everyone. The Taliban raided the houses of protesting women in the middle of the night and arrested them. That night, all the protesting girls tried to hide, but to no avail. The Taliban found and arrested anyone they targeted. These women were in Taliban prisons for a long time. Another manifestation of Taliban violence against women is the use of stun guns to intimidate women at the passport office in one of Afghanistan’s largest provinces. There, a large number of women and children were intimidated by the Taliban and faced various threats, the sound of electronic shocks was everywhere and fear was visible in everyone’s eyes, even the old women who could not move were threatened by these electric shocks. A poor girl who was talking on a cell phone was attacked by the Taliban because the Taliban thought that she was filming her violence. These acts of violence are not covered by any of the national news networks, and no one knows what kind of violence against women is taking place in different parts of this country. About six months after his takeover of Afghanistan, under pressure from the international community. , the Taliban reopened public universities to students, with a plan for the total separation of male and female students. According to this plan, in the girls’ shift, no male students could enter the university, and in the boys’ shift, no girls could remain in the university. But this was not the only restriction imposed. None of the female teachers were allowed to teach the boys, and in the case of the girls, only the older teachers were allowed to teach the girls in case of urgent need. The entrance door for the girls is completely separate from the one for the boys. Girls cannot go to offices and departments to meet their male teachers. Girls are not allowed to take photos in college. Smartphones are not allowed, and if the Taliban see a person using them, they would surely react. Fourth-year female students were instructed not to show a single hair in the photos they take for their diploma, otherwise their diploma will not be issued from the center (Kabul). At university, female professors cannot attend meetings with their male colleagues. Seniors may not hold co-ed graduation ceremonies. In some universities, girls are not allowed to wear colored clothes, they only have to wear black clothes. If a girl leaves the university just a few minutes after finishing her shift, she would have been confronted with the brutal behavior of the Taliban at the gate of the university and why she had been in the university for so long. Wearing a full hijab is a must for all female students and teachers. In recent shocking news, the Taliban have instructed airlines that women must not travel without a Maharram. And according to a written order, women who do not wear the hijab are not allowed to enter offices and ministries. A month after the universities reopened, the Taliban announced the reopening of girls’ schools. All the girls were happy and ready to go to school, but the next day, the girls older than sixth grade were not allowed to go to school and the school gates were closed for them for the second time. That day was the darkest day for Afghanistan after August 15, 2021. Girls cried in front of closed school doors, and across Afghanistan and beyond, women cried with them. We fell once more. The Taliban once again showed their violent and misogynistic face in the worst possible way to the people of Afghanistan and the whole world. The blow that has been inflicted on Afghanistan’s academic body every day since the school’s closure is irreparable. These are just a few examples of the Taliban’s violence and repression against women. Yes, today is the 245th day since the fall of Afghanistan and women are being subjected to more and more violence under the dark shadow of the Taliban. Women have lost their right to work, right to liberty, right to freedom of expression, right to demonstrate, right to education, right to freedom of movement and, in most cases, their right to life. . The Taliban seek the brutal elimination of women in all fields and increase their restrictions day by day. Support the women in Afghanistan. We need support.