Under the hashtag #freeherface (« free her face »), the faces of Afghan men wearing a sanitary mask parade on social networks. Only their eyes are visible in the images. Difficult to read the emotion of a face, but often, the look seems serious and the forehead sometimes wrinkled. If we can see there, at first sight, the illustration of any epidemic resurgence, it is in reality a campaign of solidarity with Afghan women, now forced to cover their faces in space. public since the proclamation of a decree by the dreaded Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice on May 9. On Saturday, authorities ordered TV presenters to comply. In the street, as on the screens, the Taliban hope to make all female faces disappear. In response, a few male journalists as well as local personalities launched this mobilization on social networks, choosing to hide themselves as a sign of protest.
« I can’t breathe or speak properly »
By forcing women to cover their faces, the Taliban’s desire is clear: to make them completely invisible in Afghanistan. Even in more privileged circles, such as journalism where 84% of women have lost their jobs since the Taliban took power. On May 22, ToloNews, a rare independent channel in the country’s media landscape, was forced to apply this decree « by forcein the words of its information director, Khpolwak Sapai. Before the new directive, presenters were only required to wear a headscarf. « I can’t breathe or speak properly, how do I do my job? » testified Khatira Ahmadi, one of the presenters of ToloNews. “Doing three hours of programs with your face covered is very difficult”, abounds his colleague Sonia Nizai.
So, the day after the application of the new decree, their colleagues decided to wear a mask covering their faces on the air, as a sign of protest. “This is the very first movement on social media since the return of the Taliban to power, underline after Release Heather Barr, associate director of women’s rights and Afghanistan specialist at Human Rights Watch. Its particularity is that these are men who mobilize, in solidarity with Afghan women, they stand up for their rights. This is a great novelty, because men were hardly present during the last women’s demonstrations in Kabul.
It is therefore through masked selfies that these men protest. “We are sad today and in deep pain,” writes Khpolwak Sapai, while sharing photos of a ToloNews editorial conference where men and women have their faces covered. “In solidarity with my colleagues and all the brave Afghan women,” writes on his side, behind a black mask, Siyar Sirat, a former member of the chain.
اعتراض میکنیم ، مقاومت و مبارزنیم ، تسلیم نمیشویم و اجازه نمیدهیم کک که تاریکی و جهالت الن گروه تروریست بر den
چه سربلند مردمی✌️🤍 pic.twitter.com/cDDTXBQmDA— 𝐅𝐚𝐤𝐡𝐢𝐫𝐚 𝐍𝐢𝐤-𝐡𝐚𝐭 (@FakhiraNig) May 22, 2022
“ToloNews is the most watched channel, so the message is getting through”
“You have to be realistic: in Afghanistan, only the most privileged segments of the population have access to social networks, which is not a lot of people. But the fact that this campaign is launched by famous journalists gives it a certain echo, Heather Barr analysis. Afghans watch television a lot, it is the main means of information. ToloNews is the most watched channel, so the message gets through.” Several non-governmental organizations have also relayed the #freeherface campaign, while pointing the finger at the systematism of the erasure of women from public life in Afghanistan. Like Human Rights Watch, which writes in a press release that « the decree flagrantly violates women’s rights to freedom of expression, as well as their personal autonomy and religious beliefs. »
Because since their return to power in August, the Taliban have continued to impose significant restrictions limiting women’s rights. The supreme leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, who embodies the conservative wing of the movement, has ordered women to cover themselves completely in public, ideally with the traditional burqa which was compulsory during the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001. for Afghan women, whose rights, so hard won over the past twenty years, are disappearing one by one. Many of them now suffer daily from being excluded from the public space, from the sphere of work, and from access to education. “The new decree says a lot about the Taliban’s vision of women. If the Afghan women do not respect it, it is not they who will be condemned but their “guardians” according to the Taliban term, that is to say the men of their families. In this context, it is even more difficult for them to resist because the terror inspired by the Taliban encourages many men of families to take the lead and force the woman to comply with the decree, for fear of reprisals”, explains Heather Barr.
If it satisfies the most conservative fringe of the Taliban, the decision to impose full face coverings on Afghan women could further reduce the possibility that the international community will recognize the new regime. The impact of the courageous #freeherface mobilization will, however, depend on its echo internationally. « The Ministry of Virtue doesn’t care what Afghans say on Twitter, but if it gets bigger overseas and the international community gets tougher, they will be more sensitive to it, » says Heather Barr.
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