Midwife Nooria Haya’s working days regularly included meetings and discussions with doctors men . Decide would the treatments for the locals and the priorities of the public clinic where you work. She is in Ishkamish, a rural district with few services, in Takhar province, on Afghanistan’s northeast border with Tajikistan.
But recently, the young woman from 29 years discovered that meetings between male and female staff were prohibited. It was the first order the Taliban gave them when the group took control of the region, he says. She could only wonder how else her life would change.
Ishkamish is located in the mountainous region of Hindu Kush. It is a key area on the border that the Taliban, after NATO removed the 10. 000 troops that he had in the area, he has taken for his control.
The fundamentalist Islamist group took over the district after intense fighting with apparently unprepared government forces.
The people who resided in the area they were aware of the advance of the Taliban .
“We were all scared,” Agha, from 54 years old, who lives in the Arghistan district, on the border with Pakistan and is two hours by land from Kandahar.
People he began to lock himself in their houses. But the Taliban managed to take control of each location. Locals could not escape them.
Islamist militants began to roam the streets in the morning and afternoon. Some began knocking on doors to ask for food.
People gave them what they were afraid of of being attacked.
“Each house now keeps three or four loaves or plates of food for them,” says Jan, one of the inhabitants of the place and who is dedicated to selling fruits.
And he adds that it does not matter how poor you are in an increasingly poorer country.
Also, if the militants want to stay in the houses, they can do so.
During the month of June, the Taliban seized several cities and forced the Afghan army to retreat strategically.
Afghans have criticized the departure of international troops as too hasty. Many point out that the peace talks of the last two years only served to increase their ambition , recruitment and legitimacy before their militants.
And the end of the conflict – which began with a US-led invasion ago 20 years and ended the Taliban regime that had been in back then 11 years in power – has not happened.
While the Taliban re-emerged in June, its militants achieved, through the fear, more than food and a place to sleep.
Social and economic rights achieved during the last 20 years are suddenly over. The prohibitions against women fell on Nooria for the first time in her life.
“There are many restrictions now. When I go out I have to wear the burqa, as ordered by the Taliban, and a man has to accompany me ”, says Nooria.
Traveling as a midwife throughout the district is especially difficult. Men cannot shave their beards, because the Taliban say it is against Islam.
Hairdressers are banned for doing haircuts. foreigner.
A group within the Taliban called Amri bil Marof (literally: Order of the Good) enforces the norms of socialization. His punishments were those that filled Afghans with fear in the decade of the 90.
Now again they are imposing their law of two failures: first is a warning, second is a punishment: public humiliations, imprisonment, beatings, whipping .
“Suddenly, most of our freedoms have been taken away,” says Nooria. “It is so difficult. But we have no other choice. They are brutal. We have to do what they say. They are using Islam for their own ends. We are Muslims ourselves, but their beliefs are different. ”
That differences also translate into more security and less war, because the conflict has moved to other areas.
The locals welcome this calm , as they would if the government had control. But they even doubt its durability.
But other things are gone. Afghans used to visit Takhar, famous for its mountains and clean air.
In Farkhar district, taxi driver Asif Ahadi notes that he used to win a few 900 Afghans (US $ 11). But with the arrival of the Taliban, and tourism ended .
“Tourists were my clients,” says Asif, from 35 years. “The money they paid me I used to feed my family. Now my best day will only allow me to win 150 Afghans. It’s not even enough to cover the cost of my fuel, which has now more than doubled. ”
And the presence has had a negative impact on their social life.
“People used to have parties every Friday night, listen to music and dance, have fun. Everything is completely forbidden now “, says Asif.
” All businesses have suffered the same. “
By July 4, two days after US and NATO troops left Bagram Air Base, the most In Afghanistan, where US operations had been focused for the past two decades, the Taliban seized the Panjwai district of Kandahar province.
It is the place where they were born and it was always a Taliban stronghold.
And less a week later, they themselves indicated that they already controlled the main border point with Iran, Islam Qala.
By the third week of July, the insurgency indicated that they already controlled the 90% of border points and the 85% of the country’s territory.
At that moment, the government disputed those figures. But the Taliban increasingly controlled urban areas .
As the Taliban increased their control, people began to leave their homes, where they had been refugee. Many of them had never seen the way the Taliban dispensed justice and governed the areas under their rule.
“They make decisions quickly on matters such as crime,” says Asif. “There is no bureaucracy, nor red tape; all kinds of problems can be solved in days, and no one can challenge any decision “.
They also collected a kind of offerings for the poor, which means near the 10% of the harvest in the agricultural sectors or a portion of income. But the Taliban have changed that towards a kind of tax for their operation.
This adds more financial pressure to the locals, in addition to that “all the goods that rise to the sky”, Asif says, since foreign and domestic trade is restricted and the economy is compressed. Public works have stopped .
“People were already very poor, and there is no job opportunity, no investment,” he adds.
However, some have already seen the Taliban system before.
“Their ideology and thinking are exactly as they were during the time of the Emirate. Nothing has changed at all,” says Jan. “The Taliban say they have sacrificed a lot to reestablish the Islamic Emirate, so it cannot be set aside. ”
And he notes that the Taliban have closed all schools in his area. And they have asserted that any education must be done in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic law. It is one of the many worrying indicators for those who live there.
During his last government, of 1996 to 2001, the Taliban banned education and work for women and girls, and restricted their access to health care.
Since they were expelled from power, women returned to occupy places in public life, constituting a quarter of parliament.
The number of girls in primary education increased by 50%, although at the end of high school the figure was around 20%. The life expectancy of women increased from 57 to 66 years. The numbers are comparatively bad, but improvements have occurred.
However, now there is only the fear that all those numbers will recede.
The Taliban have advanced overwhelmingly.
They have taken the main cities of the country and are already in Kabul, the capital. This Sunday, President Ashraf Ghani left the country.
The US Air Force has been supporting the Afghan army with attacks. But the last foreign forces are expected to leave the country on 11 of September .
The date marks the 20th anniversary of the attacks of the 11 September al-Qaeda in the United States, which led to the invasion of Afghanistan led by George W. Bush to remove the Taliban from power for harboring Osama Bin Laden and other al-Qaeda figures.
And this fight takes its toll on human lives. One thousand civilians died until the first week of August, says the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes.
Control of the country now appears to be in the hands of the Taliban, and the change is clear.
“You have to bow your head to live your life,” says Jan. “You can’t dare to oppose them. You can’t say anything against him. If they say ‘yes’, you have to say ‘yes’. If they say ‘no’, you must say ‘no’ ”.
That fear prevail, says Nooria. “Even though people seem relaxed, when you talk to them, you understand the serious concerns they have. We sit together, praying that God will take them away from us. ”
The names in this article are changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
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