Khatera, 33, who had fled to India last October after being shot 8 times by the Taliban that eventually rendered her blind, recently made harrowing revelations about the terror outfit that has now suddenly pivoted on its stance on women, promising to respect the rights of women, although with a caveat that they should conform to the Islamic Sharia Law.
In her interview with News 18, Khatera said the Taliban not only tortured and killed women but even fed their dead corpses to dogs.
“After torturing us, the Taliban would discard our bodies as a part of inflicting punishment on us. Sometimes, they would throw our bodies at dogs. I was lucky that I survived their barbarity. One has to live in Afghanistan to understand the ordeal women, children and minorities suffer there,” Khatera said.
Khatera, who now lives in Delhi, talked about how the Taliban considered women as second-class citizens. “In the eyes of Taliban, women are not living, breathing human beings, but merely some meat and flesh to be battered,” she said.
The Afghan woman, who served as former police personnel, was mercilessly attacked by the Taliban last year in October when she was two months pregnant. According to Khatera, the attack was planned by none other than her own father, a former Taliban fighter. She was brutalised when she was on her way back from work. Three Taliban terrorists accosted her and after checking her ID, they shot multiple bullets at her. Khatera took eight bullets in her upper body and indiscriminate knife injuries all over her body. The Talibani terrorists gouged her eyes out with knives and abandoned her to die on the street.
Remembering the bloodcurdling incident, Khatera said she was fortunate and privileged enough to travel from Kabul to New Delhi for her medical treatment because she had the finances for it. However, she added that not everyone possesses this kind of fortune and women and others who defy or disobey the Taliban, die on the streets.
“Women are not allowed to visit male doctors, and at the same time, the Taliban proscribes women from studying and going out to work. So, then what is left for a woman? Left to die? Even if you think we are just reproductive machines, there is no common sense but pure hate,” Khatera continued.
Khatera lamented on the gains lost by the women after the Taliban retained power in Afghanistan. “How does a woman give birth to a child according to these gun-wielding monsters who don’t have any inkling of what medical care means?” she asked, holding her child. “It’s difficult for the world to imagine what we had built in the last 20 years. We built dreams. Now, they are all gone. It’s over for us.”
Khatera also said that women who worked with the government or police were specifically targeted and hunted down even before the Taliban had seized control of the country, adding that it has only gotten worse after they formally came to power.
“Now, the concern is no longer about allowing women to work. At this point, I am afraid if they would leave these women alive. They don’t just kill women, they make animals feed on their bodies. They are a blot on Islam,” the Afghan woman said.
Khatera further added that Afghan women had come a long way in the last 20 years, striving for a stable livelihood, getting a proper education, taking admissions in schools and universities etc. However, everything has been undone because of the ascendancy of the Taliban, she bemoaned.
“All went down the drain in just a week. I have en heard from my relatives in Afghanistan that distraught families have even burnt the education certificates of their daughters to protect them from the Taliban’s wrath,” Khatera said.
Taliban promises respecting women’s rights in accordance with Islamic Sharia, urge them to return to work
As a part of its broader campaign to provide a more moderate face and seek global legitimacy, the Taliban had recently announced that they have relaxed their stance on women and would respect their rights in accordance with the Islamic Sharia. The terror outfit had yesterday declared an “amnesty” across the country and urged women to return to work, in a bid to reassure the wary population fretting over their fate under the Talibani regime.
Panic and fear had swept across the country after the fall of Kabul on Sunday, following which a multitude of city residents flocked to the airport, in a desperate attempt to fly out of the country.
“A general amnesty has been declared for all…so you should start your routine life with full confidence,” a statement issued by the Taliban said.
Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, tried to allay fear among Afghan residents by asserting that the Islamic Emirate, the Taliban’s term for Afghanistan, doesn’t want women to be victims. “They should be in the government structure according to Shariah law,” he said.
Speaking on women’s rights under Taliban rule, the terror outfit’s spokesperson said, “The rights of women in Afghanistan will be respected in accordance with the Islamic Sharia law.”
The Taliban reportedly said that women were the main victims of the crisis in Afghanistan for over 40 years and they don’t want the women to be victims anymore. Samangani said the Taliban wants to provide women with an environment where they can work and study and even join the government “as per Islamic law and our cultural values”.
