Hoda Khamoush flips through a book she finds at the library in Oslo. A simple joy, which her fellow sisters in their native Afghanistan are not allowed to take part in.
IN EXILE: Hoda Kamosh could risk being killed if she stayed in Afghanistan. The Taliban have stormed the family’s house several times, and the husband has fled to Pakistan in fear of his life Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
– I spend many hours in this library. Here I write my book, learn better Norwegian, and I try to help women plan events in Afghanistan, she tells TV 2.
Khamoush is one of Afghanistan’s most high-profile women’s activists.
Many see her as an important representative of a generation of young Afghans who demand equality and human rights.
WOMEN’S ADVANTAGES: In Afghanistan, Hoda Khamoush (centre) was known for organizing demonstrations for women’s rights. Photo: Private
It is now over a year since she left her home in Afghanistan.
On the occasion of the Taliban’s visit to Oslo, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited her to come to Norway to meet the Taliban face to face – an invitation she accepted.
There she demanded, among other things, the release of two female activists in Afghanistan, and confronted the Taliban with imprisonment, violence and rape of activists.
MEET THE TALIBAN: Here, Khamoush confronts the Taliban in a meeting at Soria Moria in 2022. Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
– When I sat in the meetings with the Taliban, I had a terrible feeling.
– I had traumatic memories from my childhood, and the lies they told scared me. But I pulled myself together and told myself that I have come here to be the voice of the Afghans, she says.
But the confrontations over the meeting table in Norway have not led to anything good.
– Unfortunately, the meetings did not lead to any change. The promises they made in Norway are now doing the opposite, and the situation has become even worse in Afghanistan.
In addition, the situation became untenable for Khamoush.
THREATS: After the meeting with the Taliban, Khamoush was bombarded with death threats and incitement via social media and on the phone. Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
After the delegation from the Taliban left Norway, death threats and sexual abuse poured in on Khamoush’s social media and telephone.
She says that she has feared for her life several times, and does not see it as possible to return to Afghanistan.
– In Afghanistan I had been in prison like my fellow sisters, or had been killed like Mursal Nabizada, she says.
IN NORWAY: Khamoush spends a lot of time in the library. Here she tries to read, write and learn Norwegian. Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
Nabizada was a female former parliamentarian, who was shot dead in her own home in Kabul on 15 January. She was one of the few elected women who chose to remain in Kabul after the Taliban took power.
– No mercy
“Unfortunately, the Taliban show no mercy to anyone, and especially not to their opponents, like me,” says Khamoush.
KILLED: Mursal Nabizada was one of the few female parliamentarians left in Afghanistan when the Taliban took power. On 15 January, both she and her bodyguard were shot dead in Kabul. Photo: WAKIL KOHSAR
The 27-year-old believes that it was only the Taliban who benefited from the meetings in Oslo.
– The Taliban cannot change. In their thoughts and ideology there is nothing but murder and violence, says Khamoush.
After the Taliban took over, the lives of Afghan women have been turned upside down. Over the past year, their situation has gotten worse and worse.
Girls and women are denied not only education and work, but also the right to free movement.
HAD TO STAY: Hoda Khamosh could not return home to Afghanistan after standing up to the Taliban. Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
Khamosh believes the Taliban fear Afghan women because women are the reason why the Taliban are not recognized by the rest of the world.
After 20 years of education, participation in society and experience, women are not going to voluntarily give up the rights they had before the Taliban took over power, she believes.
Bringing the Taliban to a hotel stay at Soria Moria in Oslo by private plane had a price tag of around NOK seven million. It was highly controversial a year ago, and is no less controversial now.
Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt nevertheless believes the meeting was worth the effort. She believes the situation can become even worse for women if you isolate the Taliban and do not have a dialogue with them at all.
– It has gone in the wrong direction, states Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt.
– Different opinions within the Taliban
The Foreign Minister points out that some of the representatives from the Taliban who were in Oslo support the idea of a more inclusive system of governance. They want girls to have access to schooling. But strong forces work against it.
STANDS FOR TALIBAN VISIT: Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt still believes it was right to invite the Taliban to dialogue. Photo: Ingrid Wollberg / TV 2
– Although the regime has moved in a more authoritarian direction, there are many who raise their voices in today’s Afghanistan. There is a hope that they will stand up and a hope that many others will increase the pressure on the Taliban, says Huitfeldt to TV 2.
– Are you surprised by the development?
– We have known all along that there are forces working in the direction that we now see. Others want a more inclusive governance system. There are different opinions within the Taliban.
– If you knew that this could go the other way. Why did we invite the Taliban?
– Because it could get even worse. And because it is important that we support those who fight in today’s Afghanistan for human rights and for women to have access to education.
– Saying that we don’t talk to anyone, believing and hoping that it will get better, I don’t have faith in, says the foreign minister.
Ambassador cut contact with the Taliban
It has become quite quiet in the Afghan embassy in Oslo. Ambassador Youssof Ghafoorzai refuses to approve the Taliban rule.
He has also been clear that he believes it was wrong to invite the Taliban to Norway.
BREAK WITH TALIBAN: Ambassador Youssof Ghafoorzai refuses to approve the Taliban government Photo: Tom Rune Orset / TV 2
– This was the first time the extreme Islamists were to visit a Western country after they took over power in Afghanistan, Ghafoorzai points out.
He is also not surprised that the Oslo talks have not produced better results, and believes that the stay gave the Taliban both PR, legitimacy and recognition.
A year after the talks in Oslo, he says that the situation in his home country is only getting worse and worse.
– We see a worsening of the security situation, the humanitarian situation and social conditions. The situation for Afghan girls and women in particular has worsened dramatically, he says.
TØFT: All contact and all funding from the Taliban has ceased. Now the ambassador has had to dismiss three out of five diplomats and himself moved into the embassy’s premises. Photo: Tom Rune Orset / TV 2
This makes him both angry and upset. But he also has hope. He claims the Taliban has little support in the population, and that the younger generation has the will to fight.
He claims that work is underway behind the scenes to start a political process that can remove the Taliban from power, and he hopes Norway will contribute to this work.
– The younger generation’s energy, passion and drive give me the belief that we can achieve something as soon as the situation has stabilized a little. It really gives me hope, says Ghafoorzai.
Expect help from the world community
At the library in Oslo, the 27-year-old Afghan exile is determined to continue his fight. She expects more action from Norway and the international community:
– I expect the world to put aside prejudices and find a way that can save Afghanistan, says Khamoush.
WILL TO FIGHT: Khamoush wants an action plan from the international community. Photo: Sorosh Sadat / TV 2
– We Afghans and Afghan women are trying to get freedom back to Afghanistan. When we have managed that, I want to return to the country and stand next to Afghans to maintain that freedom, she says.
In the meantime, she seeks peace of mind at work in the library.
– Here I am reassured and forget my sufferings for a while. I find myself in the books, she says.
