Taliban 2.0: Afghan cinemas to resume after 1 year, role of women cut in movies

Kabul: After a hiatus of one year since the Taliban`s takeover of Kabul last August, Cinemas in the country are all set to screen movies however the roles for women artists were severely limited, media reports said. While many are rejoicing in the reopening of Afghan cinemas after a year of being closed others are voicing grave concerns about the violation of women`s rights in the process. 37 movies and documentaries are lined up to be screened but it must be noted that Atifa Mohammadi is the only women actor who played a role in one of these recently-made movies, reported Khaama Press.

The actors in the movies are happy about the reopening of cinemas and they said they had to provide funds for the films to be made. "After one year, the doors of the cinema have been reopened. We are happy," said Abdul Sabor Khinji, an artist.

`We have spent our own pocket money on the movies. We were happy just to do our work," said another artist Fayaz Iftikhar, as per the media portal.

Zahra Murtazawi, a resident of Kabul while giving out an important message said, "Women should not be prohibited in this field because this is the right of women. I don`t think a movie would sound good without the presence of women."

When the Taliban announced last month that women and girls should not leave their homes unless necessary and should do so only with their whole bodies including their faces covered, only a few were surprised.

Others, who lived through the last period of Taliban rule from 1996 to 2001, were not. They abolished the Ministry of Women`s Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which issued the most recent order.

The outlawed Taliban also banned secondary education for girls and banned women from almost all jobs.

The group also dismantled the system to protect women and girls from violence and made it difficult for them to get health care. They issued new rules for how women must dress and behave while enforcing these rules through violence.

The list of Taliban violations of the rights of women and girls is long and growing, said Heather Barr, Women`s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch (HRW), as she raised growing concerns about the violation of the rights in the country.

She said Afghan women`s rights activists warned all along that the Taliban`s promises to respect women`s rights were false. Afghan rights activists warned in the days after the Taliban took the capital, Kabul, on August 15, 2021, that the group would intensify its crackdown on women.