Bodies of Women in Peace and War

On the front line are the bodies of women, where bombs fall, where rage explodes. At the edges of horror, in open war, or in the hidden battles within homes, in the traps of the mind—they are there. On mined borders, on the treacherous edges of love, between frustration and fire—they remain.

In Afghanistan, their bodies are erased, humiliated, killed. As Marral, an Afghan activist, says, “Women are the roots of the family, the tribe, the nation, and breaking them serves to dismantle the entire society and destroy the enemy.”

The prison for Afghan women grows daily with new bars. Their spaces shrink. Control becomes an obsession. Living is forbidden—this is the Taliban’s decree.

Women cannot work, study, or travel alone. They must hide under black rags, cannot decide anything about their own lives, and are not allowed to raise their voices, sing, recite poetry, or laugh. Parks and archaeological sites are closed to women, as are hairdressers, public baths, and restaurants. Domestic violence has no limits. The Taliban buy daughters from fathers to marry off to their fighters, and it’s an offer that cannot be refused. If you protest, resist, or even dress “wrongly,” you face prison. There, violence is dark and secret. Often, you don’t come out, or if you do, you’re scarred for life.

“If they could, they would steal the air from our lungs,” says Sabira. “According to them, I should stay at home watching my children starve,” says Narghez, a widow who tries to sell bolani (stuffed fried bread) in the streets, always ready to flee from the Taliban’s beatings.

The Taliban fear women, terrified by their bodies. Raised without mothers or sisters, shielded by guns, their minds colonized by madrasa mullahs, they lash out, unable to bear what they cannot control—the triumphant joy of a woman’s body.

A violent and fanatical terrorist group governs an entire population by erasing half of it, committing daily crimes against humanity. “Every time, history decided by others throws us backward. Now we are back in the Stone Age,” says Narghez, a Rawa (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan) activist. The so-called international community is not overly scandalized, issuing weak condemnations while business flourishes. No one feels ashamed. No one has an interest in removing the Taliban. The 2020 Doha Agreement handed over Afghanistan to them, as decided by the U.S. and its allies, who continue to support and fund the Taliban government—leaving Afghan women to their inferno.

But women do not surrender. Many continue to fight for their rights. Alone or together, sharing knowledge or working within organized groups like Rawa, these women are armed only with courage. They establish underground schools, provide healthcare, create shelters against violence, and offer food support. They cultivate secret spaces, keeping a light alive in the pitch-black future. They are present—with their bodies of peace.

Part of this article was published in the journal of the Federation of Evangelical Women in Italy.