An Afghan woman living in Australia has called on the international community to support the women of Afghanistan whose rights and access to education and employment have been erased under the extremist Taliban regime.

Parwana Amini has been calling Australia home since August 2024.

While she now has a new life here, her thoughts are with her family and friends back in Afghanistan.

Parwana was born in 1991, studied midwifery in Kabul and graduated in 2011.

“I was working in a private hospital,” she says.

In 2016, she received a scholarship to study anaesthesiology in Kabul.

She also survived an explosion in 2018 at the hospital in which she was working.

“I was advised by family members to not continue working as the conditions were dangerous,” she said.

That did not stop Parwana from still being involved in making the lives of women and girls easier.

“I worked as a volunteer. My role was to advise women about family planning,” she said.

While Parwana is undeniably very bright and successful, she, as a woman of Afghanistan, is familiar with the harsh and oppressive regime of the Taliban.

She knew that, when the Taliban took over again in 2021, they would punish women.

“They do not let women go anywhere to get or do anything. Women must be accompanied by a male companion,” she said.

When it comes to the Taliban, people from different parts of the world may have varied opinions about their actions, but Parwana’s words leave no doubts regarding what the Taliban is.

“They are 100 per cent terrorists,” she said.

Parwana says that the Taliban has a political and religious agenda and create restrictions based on both.

Recent news emerged towards the end of last year that the Taliban has forbidden women’s voices from being heard.

Not only can they not speak to anyone, they also cannot speak with each other.

This makes communication with family members left back in Afghanistan a bit complex.

“We talk through Whatsapp, because it is more secure,” Parwana said.

There is still a worry about how relatives are coping, as the Taliban has banned women from everything.

“Women are going through living hell,” Parwana said.

Daily life for women in Afghanistan seems to be a nightmare.

“There is no hope for women in Afghanistan if the situation continues, because the Taliban is restricting girls and women from everything,” she said.

“Women cannot go shopping, they cannot go to the park, they are not allowed to walk out without a male companion and the Taliban have also mandated that women wear the niqab,” Parwana said.

In addition, women must also wear gloves and stockings or socks when going out, so that no body part is visible.

“They do not care about women,” she said.

Parwana herself had witnessed an incident when she once went out with her mother, where the Taliban punished women.

“They punished all women whose hands and ankles were visible by hitting them,” she said.

And yet, the resilience of Afghan women stands.

“Women of Afghanistan are 100% brave. They always try to care about educating their children, both girls and boys. At this stage, girls can only complete primary school, they cannot go to school after that,” Parwana said.

When it comes to the international community and what it can do to help Afghan women, there is, unfortunately, not much that can be done.

“The only thing the international community can do is to make education online. There should be online schools and online universities so that girls and women can be educated,” she said.

But for now, with the situation in Afghanistan not getting better, Parwana shares her dream for the women in her home country.

“My hope for Afghan women is that the Taliban will cease to be in control and that women will be able to go back to school, university, work… I hope that women will be free to do anything,”  Parwana said.

As for her new life in Australia, Parwana hopes to be able to once again see her relatives.

“When it comes to myself, I hope that I will one day be able to have my relatives and family live here in Australia with me. I am also committed to work in my field and work responsibly in Australia,” she said.

Parwana’s sentiments about the current situation in Afghanistan are reflected in the opinions of other women too.

Nobel Peace laureate Malala Yousafzai, who survived a gunshot wound to the head from a Pakistan Taliban militant in 2012 while on a school bus, has urged Muslim leaders not to “legitimize” Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers.

In a recent address, Ms Yousafzai talked about the Taliban’s gender apartheid at a summit on girls’ education in Muslim countries in Islamabad, Pakistan, organized by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the Muslim World League.

“There’s nothing Islamic about this,” she said.

“In Afghanistan, an entire generation of girls will be robbed of its future,” Ms Yousafzai said.

The World Report for 2025 published by Human Rights Watch the Taliban have “dismantled” protections for women and girls experiencing “gender-based violence, created discriminatory barriers to their accessing health care, and barred them from playing sports and visiting parks”.

In addition, those found not abiding with their strict laws such as the mandatory niqab or male guardian when going out, have been detained and were subjected to “physical violence, threats and intimidation”.

Furthermore, women and girls have been affected by the healthcare crisis. Having banned women from education, there has been a shortage in female healthcare workers, denying, in this way, women and girls’ access to medical services.

Lastly, in 2024, as the report highlights, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands, announced that they were “initiating legal proceedings against Afghanistan before the International Court of Justice,” alleging that the Taliban’s “systematic gender-based discrimination and violence” is in violation of the country’s obligations under the “Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women,” which Afghanistan ratified in 2003.

Katerina Hatzi