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Updated August 19th, 2021 at 17:05 IST

First Afghan woman pilot calls Taliban's women's rights propaganda a 'promotional blitz'

The first female fixed-wing pilot in the Afghani Air Force, Niloofar Rahmani has cautioned against believing Taliban propaganda on women's rights.

Reported by: Dipaneeta Das
Taliban
IMAGE: AP/Twitter (representative) | Image:self
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The first female fixed-wing pilot in the Afghani Air Force, Niloofar Rahmani has cautioned against believing Taliban propaganda on women's rights. Speaking with stern confidence in her voice she said that the world would witness harassment of Afghan women "for no reason."

Rahmani is sacred of the fate of women and girls in the war-torn nation. While speaking to Fox News, Rahmani also expressed concerns over her family, who are still stuck in the Taliban-induced chaos. "Unfortunately, my family is still there and I have heard what happened in Afghanistan...I am in fear for their security," she broke down while saying.

Niloofar Rahmani is the first-ever fixed-wing woman aviator in Afghanistan's history. She is also the first female pilot in the Afghanistan Air Force since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. During her training days in 2012, Rahmani and her family received death threats from the Taliban, who disapproved of her ambitious nature. Following the deteriorating situation, Rahmani had to take refuge in Florida along with her two sisters since 2016.

Taliban promise to recognise woman is a farce: Niloofar

The fear of women's oppression looms as the rogue fighters walk around the city without any opposition. Adding to the persistent notion, Rahmani called the identification of women's rights according to Sharia Law, ''a promotional blitz." Her comments came at the heels of Zabihullah Mujahid's speech on August 17, where he sought to portray themselves as more moderate than the late 1990s, AP reported.

Taliban's long-term spokesperson Mujahid on August 17 emerged from the shadows to address the media. He promised to "recognise and honour" women's rights as per Islamic Law. Although, he failed to elaborate further on the topic when asked for details by journalists.

Meanwhile, on the same day, another video surfaced on the internet that bared the skeleton of the orthodox Taliban mindset. The video showed a woman journalist ask a group of Taliban militants about their perception of democratic governance that included voting in of female politicians. The set of three hid their faces with their hands smirked on the thought of the same. One among them asked the cameraperson to stop rolling and continued to laugh. It is noteworthy that in the same times, the Taliban also handed out Islamic headscarves (Hijab) at doors in Kabul and requested women to return to work and children to return to schools. The incident was reported by a Taliban official channel, Afghan TV on Monday.

Taliban is known for its inclination towards violence, oppression, and flouting of civil rights. Moreover, the extremist group is especially bent towards curtailing women and girls' education and employment rights. During the last Talibani regime from 1996 to 2001, the world witnessed the severe clampdown of women and child safety in the country. Quoting their interpretation of the Islamic Law, the cad extremist group imposed stringent rules on women barring them from education, employment, free movement, and security. The women were also barred from casting votes.

With inputs from AP

Image: AP/Twitter (representative)

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Published August 19th, 2021 at 17:05 IST

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