Afghan women long for a better day

They may not be quite ready to throw their burqas aside, but many women in Kabul heaved a sigh of relief today at the appointment of two women to the interim government for their war-ruined nation.

Even those who want to continue to wear their billowing body coverings pleaded for the new administration to guarantee education for women.

‘‘We can’t live like this. We can’t be ignorant. We have to have education,’’ said 40-year-old Miriam, the mother of five children.

For five years during the Taliban’s repressive rule that ended on November 13, women were virtually imprisoned by the Islamic militia.

They were forbidden to work, to go to school, to mix freely with the opposite sex, to show their faces.

The strictest Taliban suggested people paint their first-floor windows black so prying eyes could not see within.

Today, at UN-sponsored talks in Germany, an interim Afghan administration was agreed upon that includes women - for the first time in several decades.

The new minister of health will be Dr Suhaila Siddiq, a respected Kabul surgeon who remained working in Afghanistan during the Taliban’s rule.

When the Taliban first swept through Kabul in 1996, Siddiq was chief of the surgical department of Wazir Akbar Khan hospital. During the pro-Moscow government of Najibullah Siddiq, she had been given the rank of general and was commonly known in the Afghan capital as General Suhaila.

But despite the fact that she was the country’s best surgeon, the Taliban fired her and ordered her to stay at home.

In an interview at the time, Siddiq said: ‘‘I didn’t marry because I didn’t want to take any orders from a man. Look at us now.’’

Within months of taking power, however, the Taliban Islamic militia realised the asset they had lost and asked Siddiq to return to work. This time they sent her to the 400 bed military hospital, where wounded Taliban soldiers were treated.

‘‘Suhaila is very famous. She is a strong and good woman,’’ Miriam said.

The other woman on the interim administration is Sima Samar, who will be the women’s affairs minister. She is currently working with refugees in neighbouring Pakistan.

Hidden behind her burqa, 18-year-old Laila said life under the Taliban was like living in prison.

‘‘A woman should be able to know her potential. She should have the right to work, to know her rights,’’ she said.

Laila, who attended school for only six years, said she wanted better for her five-year-old sister Ranjana, who was holding her hand.

‘‘I want that she has a better hope for her future. For that, she needs to have education,’’ Laila said.