A vacuum for silence

Preface

I am a person who has not been able to return to homeland for over three decades.

I have settled on stolen land from early childhood.

I exist in a space of general safety and comfort, with the agency and privilege to listen, and learn within the relativity of my own access context.

I live in a nation-state that relies on complacency to continue its modes of conquest.

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Prologue

The borders of present-day Afghanistan were defined in 1893.

Afghanistan has been under siege of the Taliban regime since 1994.

The force of the regime’s ideological indoctrination has enshrined a vacuum for silence. It echoes internally through the accepted oppression of women. It reverberates through the muted global response to the ongoing complicity of western imperial agendas. This complicity can only be described as a continuum of cause and effect between imperial intentions masked for the greater good, bearing catastrophic effects that have led to entangled oppressions.

Afghanistan’s future will be shaped by this very silence, forged under an occupation that is determined to enforce homogeneity and control. Persisted through rhetoric that has legitimised the actions of imperial authority.

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Introduction

_{Cacophony of the nation-state, President George Bush public address October 7 2001, Laura Bush address November 17 2001, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani Address to Joint Meeting of Congress March 25 2015, Joe Biden address August 16 2021, Taliban issue new law, Tolo News August 22 2024.
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An abridged register for nation-state rhetoric imposed on the people in Afghanistan. You may wish to play Cacophony of the nation-state while reading the register.

7 October 2001 Operation Enduring Freedom begins as President George Bush launches airstrikes on Afghanistan.

17 November 2001 Laura Bush links the war on terror to the liberation of Afghan women.

5 December 2001 Hamid Karzai appointed to lead the Interim Government via the Bonn Agreement.

9 December 2001 Taliban regime collapses.

1 May 2011 Osama bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

7 October 2011 U.S. objectives in Afghanistan remain unclear; terrorist havens in Pakistan justify continued presence

25 March 2015 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani pledges self-reliance within a decade during U.S. Congress address.

21 August 2017 President Trump commits to an open-ended military presence based on conditions, not timelines.

29 February 2020 U.S.–Taliban Doha Accord signed. This legitimises the Taliban, positioning them as a security guarantor for the region.

14 April 2021 Biden announces full withdrawal by 11 September 2021.

15 August 2021 Taliban seize Kabul.

16 August 2021 President Biden states the war was never about nation-building.

17 August 2021 Taliban pledge to respect women’s rights under Islamic law.

12 September 2021 Gender-segregated entrances and classrooms implemented.

23 March 2022 Secondary education for girls halted.

7 May 2022 Women ordered to fully cover in public and remain home; male escorts required.

10 November 2022 Women banned from parks, gyms, public events, and bathhouses.

20 December 2022 Women prohibited from universities, NGOs, and non-primary education.

12 February 2023 Female doctors barred from sitting specialisation exams.

4 April 2023 Women banned from working with UN agencies.

21 August 2024 The Taliban enforces a 35-article moral code outlining what is not permitted in daily life, especially for women. The new law is monitored by the Department of Virtue and Vice and its morality police. Women are forbidden from speaking publicly outside the home.

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Dedication

Women in Afghanistan have always been in defiance of the Taliban regime. They have continued their protest and resistance since the regime’s takeover in August 2021. A myriad of groups, collectives and organisations have been established prior and in response to the 2021 regime takeover.

The Purple Saturdays are one of the most active self-driven women's activist groups operating out of Afghanistan and formed in protest to the return of the Taliban regime by women living in Afghanistan. The group first formed on 17 August 2021 in Kabul, gathering in homes and on the streets in protest for

حق، عدالت و آزادی

haq, adalat, azadi – right, justice, freedom.

Protests are voiced in Dari, carrying a depth often lost in translation. This linguistic inaccessibility allows place-based movements like Purple Saturdays to be easily overlooked—consciously or otherwise by allies living elsewhere.

The name Purple Saturdays was chosen with intention: shambah (Saturday) symbolises new beginnings, and purple signifies hope and strength. Within this name lies the movement’s resolve—persisting through new beginnings, fortified by hope. This grassroots campaign is not singular; its protests are deliberate and self-determined. The group is committed to a future in which women, their voices and cultural contributions have a continuum despite the imposition of the regime.

Under gender apartheid, the movement has grown to include a diverse network of women and established human rights activists. Members believe that the only path forward—especially for women, ethnic minorities, and minority religious groups—is targeted resistance, underpinned by intellectual and organisational movements capable of dismantling both the Taliban regime and its ideology. The group functions as a decentralised network grounded in solidarity, group safety, and collective action. The protesters emphasise that the international community should not normalise relations with the Taliban, currently legitimised to maintain global peace and security.

Protest manifests individually and collectively: through graffiti, hashtags, declarations, resolutions, articles, reports, appeals, and media appearances. Meetings are primarily online, with members working discreetly from home, veiled when visiting one another.

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Epilogue

“We are forced to continue our activities under aliases, changing our faces, using white or blue masks, using a chador/burqa. Even when the members of the Purple Saturdays movement go to the city/market to shop, they are very afraid to return home, because they are not sure if they will return home or if they will be killed or arrested by the Taliban.

We have protest activities almost every day, but usually once a week we hold protest activities in one or two provinces of Afghanistan with different and innovative methods.

We continue our protest activities with very limited resources, and sometimes we even have difficulty obtaining paper and markers to write our slogans.”

Her final words “My one hope is that we do not forget the women of Afghanistan”.

Maryam Marof Arwin – cofounder of the Purple Saturdays

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Writer’s notes

This work has been conducted to facilitate measures of safety for the lives of members from the Purple Saturdays movement living in Afghanistan.

Mutual aid supports self-determined action. If you have the capacity, you can donate to via PayPal to info@awcswo.org

You can connect more with the Purple Saturdays via Instagram: @purplesaturdays.af and online https://purplesaturdays.org

The fee for this commission has been donated to the Purple Saturdays.