Niger Shakes Off Neo-Colonialism – Analysis

 August 14, 2023 

By Gateway House

By Manjeet Kripalani and Neelam Deo 

The July 26 coup in the West African nation of Niger, a former French colony, has succeeded in the impossible: pushing Ukraine off the lips of Western leaders and off the front pages of the Western global press. Coup leader Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, 63, declared the French military defence agreements at an end, and asked French companies, mining uranium in Niger, to leave the country and the resources for the Nigeriens to manage for themselves. It has provoked much handwringing about the fate of democracy in Niger. That the French and U.S. troops stationed there have been leading the regional anti-jihadist fight and expelling them will be a set back with dangerous consequences. That Niger will fall into further chaos because African countries have not built the institutions necessary to govern themselves.

This may well be the case. But the coup has revealed three truths: the long tail of colonialism is reaching its end; alternatives to the western control and command have emerged; the younger generation in developing countries have neither awe nor loyalty to the old master and nothing to lose in overthrowing the past, even though they know not their future.

The events in Niger reflect this with surprising sharpness.

Niger was a French colony from 1900 to 1960. Over 70 years later, in 2023, the Nigerien economy is still dependent on its former colonial power. Tchiani’s central demand is to end its political, economic, and military dependence on France, with which it has numerous military defence agreements, whose companies mine and take away 80% of Niger’s uranium, and whose currency, the West African CFA, is controlled by the Banque de France. The cynicism of the latter, even as France itself uses the Euro, is not lost on the Nigeriens. Niger’s elected former president, Mohamed Bazoum, was supported by Paris, and continued the status quo.

This model of control is replicated many former French colonies in West Africa – Niger, Mali, Cote D’Ivore, Burkia Faso, Guinea, Gabon, Senegal. For some of their leaders, Paris is still the Mecca, rather than their own capitals. These West African leaders, elected or otherwise, have built themselves in the image of their colonisers, and received French support in return. The convenience of having French Franc-controlled economies means that the wealth acquired during leadership positions can be transferred to France, Belgium or Canada.

This is enabled due to lack of air connectivity within Africa but continuing colonial linkages to the former mother country. Locals would often joke that to visit a neighbouring country, their rulers went through Paris – where they could check on their bank accounts and indulge in some fine dining.

Many of these countries are in ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States), which is allied to France and the U.S and which has immediately threatened military action to its own member country, rather than call for diplomacy. This is exactly the position in the Russia-Ukraine conflict as well, where the West argues against diplomacy or a ceasefire.  Former President Bazoum, under house arrest, even wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, seeking the return to ‘democracy’ in Niger.

This has had no effect on Tchiani or the Nigeriens. In fact, they showed greater enthusiasm for the ouster of the French, and even if ordinary people didn’t support Tchiani before, they do now. A recent telephone poll by Premise Data shows that 78% of educated Nigerien men[1] support the coup and prefer the involvement of the Russians over the French and Americans. Clearly, the U.S.-Russia proxy war in Ukraine has forced much of the world to take sides, and some countries in Africa see Russia as an alternative to the West. They see a direct benefit from Russia’s forgiving $23 billion in African debt and sending free foodgrain to the region. In a deliberate provocation, the Nigeriens on the streets of Niamey and other towns have been waving the Nigerien and Russian flags for the cameras.

The pushback against France is not new but has accelerated in the past year. Mali, which also saw a coup in May 2022, similarly demanded that the French leave their country, and waved Russian flags along with their own. Ditto with Burkina Faso, which saw two military coups last year. Both Mali and Burkina Faso were suspended from ECOWAS. Both have announced support for the new dispensation in Niger.

Alternatives to the Western model – colonial or the Washington Consensus – are now available and being accessed in Africa. These include Russia through security and resource engagements, China through its Belt and Road Initiative and extractive industries investments, investments by Gulf countries – and in smaller measure by countries like Türkiye and India.

Maybe, as the West repeatedly says, none of these African countries are viable on their own, and that ruthless coup leaders will commit atrocities. Almost certainly they will, and almost certainly there will be chaos. The coups may continue as outsiders exacerbate existing religious and fault lines, and even as French control of those economies erodes.

Historically there have been other templates for these African countries to follow. The Indian example of democratic governance and economic development is one, and the Gulf experience of enrichment through control of its own natural resources, is another.

For now, Nigeriens seem willing to take a chance on their new coup leaders. Even if they are overthrown, perhaps the deluge that follows is one that will ultimately take them on a path that will free them from the neo-colonialism that they currently endure.

The commander of Niger’s presidential guard General Abdourahamane Tchian. Photo Credit: Fars News Agency

About the authors:

• Manjeet Kripalani is the Executive Director, Gateway House.
• Amb. Neelam Deo is co-founder, Gateway House and former ambassador to Ivory Coast with concurrent accreditation to Niger, Guinea, and Sierra Leone.

Source: This article was written for Gateway House: Indian Council on Global Relations.

References

[1] “After Niger’s coup, the drums of war are growing louder,” The Economist, Aug 7, 2023, https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2023/08/07/after-nigers-coup-the-drums-of-war-are-growing-louder.

The hunt for Russia’s secret ships

Turkey’s strategic straits are a trade superhighway — and a lifeline for the Kremlin’s war machine.

Yörük Işık has been watching the waters in his native Istanbul for over a decade |

 Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images

BY GABRIEL GAVIN

POLITICO EU
AUGUST 14, 2023

ISTANBUL — Yörük Işık puts down his espresso cup suddenly and picks up his camera. “This one is carrying diesel,” he says, training the long lens on a rusted red tanker bobbing into view in the distance. “Maybe in violation of the price cap.”

For more than a decade, he’s watched the waters in his native Istanbul, tracking the comings and goings of the tens of thousands of grain carriers, container vessels and warships that chart a course along the Bosphorus Strait every year. The natural canal flowing through the heart of Europe’s largest city links the Black Sea to the Mediterranean, connecting Russia and Ukraine to the rest of the world.

“I’m obsessive,” he explains, “I don’t like to go too far inland because I have this fear I’ll miss something. You never know what’s going to happen and often you don’t realize it’s suspicious until afterwards. Even when I have free time or I’m writing a report, I sit on my balcony so I can keep an eye out.”

With his long hair and grey beard, Işık doesn’t stand out among the fishermen, tug captains and dock workers making a living in Turkey’s ports. But as a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, a Washington-based think-tank, the 52-year-old has built up unparalleled evidence of Russia’s efforts to quietly acquire sanctioned goods and military hardware — while keeping energy and agricultural exports flowing to help pay for them. A regular analyst in Turkish media and on television, his Bosphorus Observer site has become a go-to resource for those tracking the Kremlin’s supply routes.

Ultimately, it’s a battle that could decide the outcome of the war in Ukraine.

“It’s all about finding out what they’re hiding,” he said, looking out from the café on the Bosphorus as the call to prayer wafts across the water from the half-dozen or so white minarets that dot the hillside.

“Sometimes they’ll lie and say a ship is going from one perfectly innocent place to another. They’ll turn their tracking off and go dark in the Black Sea or spoof their location. Along the waterway is endless traffic, it’s like watching an Istanbul taxi rank, but when you look closer and see the ship physically isn’t there, that tells you a lot. The camera doesn’t lie.”
Troubled waters

Just 500 kilometers away across the Black Sea, Russia’s war is raging in Ukraine. Since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, Western nations have imposed sweeping sanctions on Moscow in an effort to cut it off from luxury products and dual-use goods that could be repurposed for use on the battlefield. Meanwhile, the G7 club of nations has imposed a $60 per barrel cap on Russian crude oil, threatening steep penalties for traders who flout the rules.

But analysts and policymakers fear not enough is being done to make the restrictions stick and helping Russia get hold of what it wants has become big business for middlemen — both companies and countries — prepared to take the risk.
“It’s very difficult to track what’s coming from Eur

ope to Russia and vice versa,” said George Voloshin, an expert in sanctions circumvention with financial crime watchdog ACAMS. “We have a very incomplete picture because Russia is trying to adapt to increasingly stringent sanctions and once you have a control in place, they find a way around it. Turkey is the gateway for that kind of trade — particularly for European consumer goods.”

According to statistics collated by analytics platform Trade Data Monitor, seen by POLITICO, Turkey is the fifth-biggest source of Russia’s imports, shipping more than $3.6 billion worth of goods and commodities last year alone. Machinery and electronic components are among its top exports for 2023, up 200 percent and 183 percent respectively in the first six months of this year. And that doesn’t even include the supplies that simply transit the Bosphorus without ever formally entering Turkey.

“Ankara has carved a role for itself where on one hand it’s an intermediary in the conflict, but on the other a convenient geographical hub for the re-export of things that Moscow needs,” said Maria Shagina, a senior fellow working on sanctions policy at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Yörük Işık has spent years building evidence on Russia’s efforts to circumvent sanctions and move military hardware into and out of the Black Sea | Gabriel Gavin/POLITICO

“That ranges from oil and diesel shipments to military hardware. For Russia, this comes at a cost — but, at the moment, it’s profitable and it’s hell-bent on winning a war of attrition this way over time.”
Chasing a shadow

Meanwhile, a so-called shadow fleet of hundreds of aging tankers has emerged on the global market over the past year to haul embargoed Russian energy exports and buy oil above the price cap, giving the Kremlin much-needed revenues to pay its troops and purchase weaponry. Without proper maintenance or insurance, they frequently turn off their transponders to hide the origin of their fuel or carry out ship-to-ship transfers to confuse those watching from afar.

In June, the EU moved to bar these vessels from its ports — but many continue to sail through the Bosphorus.

“The shadow fleet was all under the flag of the Marshall Islands, and they were all deregistered thanks to successful U.S. diplomacy,” said Işık. “Then, in one night, the whole shadow fleet moved to Gabon registration. Maybe next it will move to Cameroon or Palau. When you see these flags, it’s not that they’re immediately guilty, but there’s a higher chance you’ll find something compared to others.”

With warnings that circumvention could prolong the war, costing more Ukrainian lives, Brussels is ramping up pressure to tighten existing loopholes. According to Voloshin, those like Işık who monitor ports and waterways can be “very useful” in piecing together the full scale of the problem and helping target sanctions against those involved. “You need people like that at every single dock and airport, but unfortunately that’s impossible.”

Worse still for the maritime industry, unprecedented Western sanctions mean unsuspecting companies could fall foul of the existing rules inadvertently. “The EU’s latest sanctions package has introduced the first ban on spoofing anywhere in the world,” said Ami Daniel, co-founder of Windward, an Israeli tech firm that tracks vessels suspected of sanctions circumvention using satellite imagery.

“Anyone doing business with vessels suspected of that kind of activity as well as vessel who turn off transmissions or conduct unreported ship-to-ship transfer could face criminal charges, fines or see their goods impounded. If a container under the transit ban — chemicals, automotive, technology — makes an unscheduled stop in Russia, it becomes untradeable, and without due diligence major companies could be caught up in that.”
Playing both sides

Of even greater concern are the ships said to be covertly supplying Russia’s armed forces.

“With naval ships, you can see their flags, it’s not something secret. But some are now disguising themselves as merchant vessels — they might do commercial jobs, or hire civilian crews to hide it, but they’re carrying Russian Armed Forces equipment and not flying a naval flag,” said Işık.


“Turkey isn’t inspecting these ships. During the Syrian war, when there was lots of tension with Russia, Turkey created lots of headaches for naval auxillary vessels, and there’s plenty of evidence put out by people like me that these ships are operating in this way. But Ankara isn’t being creative or coming up with new approaches at the moment.”

Despite being a member of NATO, Turkey has refused to impose sanctions on Moscow, instead hosting a series of ill-fated peace talks and stepping up economic relations with both sides. That policy seems to reflect public opinion inside the country where, according to a poll last year from Aksoy Research, nearly two thirds of Turkish people worry that the war is having a negative impact on their country — but 80 percent believe they still need to stay neutral.

As part of efforts to insulate itself from the consequences of the conflict, Ankara also underwrote the U.N.-brokered grain deal, credited with helping get food supplies from Ukraine’s blockaded ports to the developing world. Its collapse following the Kremlin’s withdrawal last month has sparked fears of famine and led to a spate of Russian attacks on Ukrainian export infrastructure. Turkey’s National Security Council has since warned tension in the Black Sea “is not in anyone’s benefit,” but stopped at calling for the two sides to return to the negotiating table.

The Russian war ship BSF Nikolay Flichenkov 152 passing through the Bosphorus Strait on October 18, 2016 | Ozan Kose/AFP voa Getty Images

“The Turkish government would rather see predictability than not, but it’s clear their government has been compensated from the conflict,” Ryan Gingeras, a professor at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, told POLITICO. “They’ve abetted stolen shipments of grain out of Ukraine — they’ve made sure they’ve stayed on good relations with Moscow, as well as Kyiv, but the collapse of the grain deal shows the limits to which Ankara can exert influence over the Black Sea.”
War on the waves

Ukraine is now evidently intent on dealing with the threat Russia poses itself.

Last week, Kyiv declared the waters around Russia’s Black Sea ports a “war risk area” from August 23 until further notice. Speaking to POLITICO, Oleg Ustenko, an economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that his country views “everything the Russians are moving back and forth on the Black Sea [as] our valid military targets.”

Hours earlier, the Ukrainian armed forces reportedly hit a Russian fuel tanker, the Sig, with a sea drone, causing it serious damage. The ship, sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in 2019, had been sailing close to Ukraine’s occupied Crimean peninsula, carrying 43,123 barrels of fuel oils.

“The target they chose was the most wonderful one,” Işık beamed.

“The Sig is a ship that, along with its sister ship Yaz, has been assisting the Russian armed forces for more than half a decade now. Hitting the Sig, which is a secret Russian naval auxillary vessel carrying kerosene from refineries in occupied Crimea, hits Russian logistics in Syria, it hurts the profits of the Kremlin-linked elites making money from that trade and cuts the money being used to pay their private militaries.”

“If my work helped Ukraine identify it then I’m proud, because I’ve been after it for a long, long, long time,” he said.“There’s 15-20 other targets like that, and I think Ukraine knows about them all. Given the world has chosen not to take action, they have acted.”

But for Işık, Istanbul isn’t just a place to watch the war unfold — it holds the key to ending it.

“This city has been here for thousands of years because of the waterway,” he said, swilling coffee grounds around the bottom of his cup. “If you control the water, you control the trade — and then you get to decide how the world works.

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Campaigner wants Canberra to 'end the uncertainty' for refugees

Sri Lankan refugee Neil Para is walking 1000 kilometres to raise awareness of refugees in Australia, particularly those facing visa problems. Photo: Neil Para Facebook

 14 August 2023
Christina Persico

Australia has announced the number of people resettled under its Humanitarian Program has increased to 20,000 a year, up from just under 18,000.

The move has been welcomed by a refugee, who is part-way through a 1000km advocacy walk - but he wants to see more.

Australia's Minister for Immigration, Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs, Andrew Giles, said the Anthony Albanese-led Government reaffirms its commitment to those in need with an increase in the Humanitarian Program annual intake.

But policy for the offshore detention programme - known as Operation Sovereign Borders - remains unchanged.

"With more people displaced worldwide than ever before, the Albanese Labor Government is stepping up to play its part in the global resettlement effort in a responsible way," Giles said in a statement.

"This responsibility extends beyond their arrival, by providing robust support to refugees to ensure they are well equipped to settle into Australia and rebuild their lives with certainty."

Refugee Neil Para and the coalition of refugee groups supporting him have welcomed the increase in the intake.

Para formed the Union of Australian Refugees this year to help give refugees a voice and is walking 1000km to Albanese's electorate office in Sydney to raise awareness of their plight, especially those with no visas or visas that don't give them certainty.

"That is why we formed the Union; we are a voice for refugees who are already in Australia," Para said.

"We welcome the minister's announcement, but we want the minister to please end the uncertainty for those who are already here."

Para has lived in Australia for 11 years with his wife and three daughters, and without a permanent visa.

He will present a petition to Albanese's office at the end of his walk.

His youngest daughter, Nive, has a Medicare card as she was born in Australia and is a citizen, but Para said she does not have the same rights as other Australian children.

Ian Rintoul from the Refugee Action Coalition said they also welcomed the increase, but they were mindful there are around 10,000 refugees already in Australia needing permanent visas.

Sri Lankan refugee Neil Para is walking 1000 kilometres to raise awareness of refugees in Australia, particularly those facing visa problems. Photo: Neil Para Facebook

 

Partition: The untold story of the role of aeroplanes

Published
India-Pakistan independence

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Local workers unload a Douglas Dakota transport airplane at the US forces airbase in Karachi in 1943

By Soutik Biswas

India correspondent

In his 1974 novel Tamas (Darkness), a vivid portrayal of the bloody partition of India, author Bhisham Sahni vividly depicts the atmosphere changing in a violence-wracked village as a plane circles above it thrice.

"People ventured out. The fighting seemed to have stopped and dead bodies were being disposed. People went back to their houses to assess their losses in terms of clothes and armaments."

Sahni wrote a fictional account of the carnage that accompanied the partition as it split the subcontinent into the new independent nations of India and Pakistan. Religious violence erupted, displacing some 12 million people, and claiming the lives of up to one million people.

Fiction might have been mirroring reality when the planes swooped over the troubled villages, suggests Aashique Ahmed Iqbal, an Indian historian.

• The friendship that survived the division of a nation

The mere presence of the aircraft, he says, had a deterrent effect, dispersing mobs and giving villages time to prepare their defences. "The aeroplane played a small, but highly crucial role during the division of the British empire in India into the independent dominions of India and Pakistan," notes Mr Iqbal in his fascinating book, The Aeroplane and the Making of Modern India.

Of the 12 million people who fled from India and Pakistan, the overwhelming majority travelled by train, vehicle, cart and on foot. Up to 50,000 people - or less than 1% of the people evacuated - were flown out of what became India and Pakistan, Mr Iqbal says. A near-complete exchange of population was completed in three months, between September and November in 1947.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Planes flew over railway tracks to safeguard refugee-laden trains from potential mob ambushes

The Royal Indian Air Force (RIAF) - the aerial force of British India and later the dominion of India - would play a key role in quelling disorder and help in evacuating partition refugees, notes Mr Iqbal.

Every morning, their aircraft embarked on tactical reconnaissance missions, flying over railway tracks to safeguard refugee-laden trains from potential mob ambushes, and checking the rails for any signs of tampering. The planes would also look out for armed mobs and communicate with trains using wireless radio.

In September 1947, aircraft flying over Punjab reported a startling sight: up to 30,000 refugees trekking on foot along a 25-mile (40-km) stretch, as recounted by Mr Iqbal. These planes detected lurking mobs poised to attack weary refugees, relaying their locations to military patrols. They witnessed ominous columns of smoke rising from incinerated villages. "If you flew low," Mr Iqbal writes, "you would spot bodies floating through Punjab's famous canal system."

• How a jacket and a briefcase shaped a partition love story

That was not all. RIAF planes - mostly trusty Dakotas - transported 1.5 million doses of cholera vaccines from Delhi to Karachi to help prevent an epidemic in the unsanitary refugee camps. They also dropped cooked food, sugar and oil for refugees. Both India and Pakistan used planes to drop leaflets warning rioters to cease violence, Mr Iqbal writes. The RIAF also ended up evacuating non-Muslims from distant parts of Pakistan like Multan, Bannu and Peshawar.

In scenes reminiscent of the desperate Afghans who attempted to flee their country by running alongside and clinging to military jets at Kabul airport in August 2021, the airfields of Delhi and Punjab in 1947 also witnessed moments of "great danger and desperation".

IMAGE SOURCE,MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES

Image caption,

Indian companies bought cheap aircraft left behind by the US forces after the end of World War Two

"Refugees in camps near the airfields would rush to the planes as soon as they were permitted. Passengers desperate to be flown out of danger bribed crew with money and gold to board the plane," Mr Iqbal writes.

Tickets were expensive. Passengers were allowed to carry very little luggage: there are accounts of a refugee from Hyderabad in India carrying only her Quran to Pakistan; and others carrying a "battered child's cane chair" and a "moth-eaten-looking parrot".

Not surprisingly, the planes were packed to the gills. Seats and carpets were removed to accommodate as many refugees as possible. Dakota DC-3 planes meant to carry 21 passengers often carried five times the number.

• Why was British India partitioned 75 years ago?

A private airline technician was given a pair of knuckle-dusters by his pilot to control the crowds. "He would punch his way to the door collecting undercarriage pins and punch his way into the plane before firmly locking in," Mr Iqbal writes. Once the doors closed, the engines would start. "Then the crowd would automatically vanish due to the slip stream of the engines."

That no major crashes were reported because of the overcrowding, lax airport security and overworked planes was remarkable. "Refugees often crowded airfields before planes landed because of lack of security. Matters were not helped by hostility of the authorities to air crews of the 'other' country," writes Mr Iqbal.

IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES

Image caption,

Muslim refugees gather in India to seek transport to Pakistan

By early 1947, India had 115 civilian airplanes run by 11 private companies. The end of World War II had sparked an "unprecedented boom" for civil aviation as Indian companies bought cheap aircraft - mostly Douglas DC-3 Dakotas - left behind by the departing US forces. But there was a glut in supply and not enough demand and profits plummeted. During partition, civilian planes not flying on scheduled routes were diverted to ferry refugees from Pakistan to India; and 10 of these planes were made available for the government.

But civilian airline operators were not able to cope with the mass evacuation. They also refused to risk aircraft and personnel for this "impossible task". Eventually foreign help was sought: 21 British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) planes flew "non-stop" for 15 days to move 6,300 people from Delhi to Karachi. They also carried 45,000kg of food, tents and vaccines for Muslim refugees stranded at Delhi airfields.

• Partition 70 years on: The turmoil, trauma - and legacy

Two Royal Air Force transport aircraft deployed to evacuate British nationals were also used to evacuate some 12,000 people between India and Pakistan. Only 2,790 were British personnel; the rest would be railways, post, and telegraph employees who would play a key role in the exchange of population on the ground, writes Mr Iqbal.

By October 1947, India realised this effort was still not enough. This was when 'Operation India' was launched: over six weeks in October and November, 21 planes - mainly Dakotas chartered from eight British companies - transported 35,000 people and more than 1.5 million pounds of baggage between India and Pakistan. Some 170 aviation personnel were flown in from Britain to help.

Indian aviation companies were overwhelmed by the magnitude of evacuation, so both the governments had to rely on chartered British aircraft. And the use of planes, says Mr Iqbal, "enabled the rapid constitution of independent India in the crucial first months after Independence".

Afghan women take protests online as Taliban crush dissent

Afghan women have pushed back, taking to the streets to oppose the Taliban, and moving their protests indoors and online amid arrests and violent crackdowns.

Protesters take part in a march and rally in support of Afghan women's rights in London, Britain, November 27, 2022.
(photo credit: REUTERS/TOBY MELVILLE)

Days after the Taliban administration in Afghanistan announced in July that all women's beauty salons must be closed within a month, videos on social media showed groups of women protesting on the streets in Kabul, as well as in their homes, with many holding signs that read: "Bread, justice, work".

Since taking over Kabul on Aug. 15, 2021, the Taliban administration has barred girls and women from high schools, colleges, universities and most jobs, including working for the United Nations and non-government organizations.

Afghan women have pushed back, taking to the streets to oppose the Taliban, and moving their protests indoors and online as arrests and violent crackdowns grew, according to research by the Centre for Information Resilience, a non-profit.




Organising through WhatsApp and Telegram groups, Afghan women have posted pictures and videos of the protests on Facebook, Instagram and X - formerly known as Twitter, drawing attention to the worsening crisis, and enabling international rights groups to document abuses and opposition to the Taliban.


"The images of women protesting on the streets have been the single most important factor in compelling the international community not to look away," said Heather Barr, women's rights associate director at Human Rights Watch.


"The indoor protests feel like a valuable way of saying, in between the very risky street protests: "We're still here. Just because you don't see us on the streets every day it does not mean that our resistance is over"," she said.


Several of the indoor protests are organized by the Purple Saturdays Movement, a women's rights group that was formed two days after the fall of Kabul, and has hundreds of members.

It moved its demonstrations indoors after dozens of its members were arrested and imprisoned, said founder Maryam Marof Arwin, a former television news anchor.

Protesters take part in a march and rally in support of Afghan women's rights in London, Britain, November 27, 2022. (credit: REUTERS/TOBY MELVILLE)

"Even broadcasting our protests on social media networks, we are insulted, warned, and threatened with prison and death by the Taliban and their supporters," she said.

"But we will not give up our fight to bring the crimes of the Taliban to the eyes and ears of the world," she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

Mapping protests

The Taliban banned the internet when they first controlled Afghanistan in the late-1990s, but have since embraced social media to broadcast their messages and attack critics. They have said they plan to upgrade the country's internet networks to 4G.

While Facebook and YouTube continue to block many Taliban accounts, supporters of the regime are known to criticise and harass women's rights activists on these platforms, even as girls and women struggle with limited mobile phone ownership and poor internet access that impede education and livelihoods.

That has also made it harder to access and verify online evidence of protests and rights violations in the country, said David Osborn, team leader of Afghan Witness at the Centre for Information Resilience.

Afghan Witness, which was set up in October 2021, has a portal where citizens can upload their own evidence of abuse. But much of the data is generally collected by investigators monitoring social media channels because many witnesses are "too scared to upload video footage themselves," Osborn said.

There is a "high level of false and misleading information circulating" in the country, so photographs and videos on social media are verified and archived using open source techniques such as geolocation and chronolocation, he said.

While images of indoor protests can be easier to find online, they cannot be geolocated or verified because they usually consist of just one piece of recorded footage, as compared to outdoor demonstrations that may have multiple videos from participants and witnesses, Osborn said.

Between March 1 and June 27 this year, Afghan Witness recorded and analysed 95 separate women's protests across the country, of which 84 were held indoors, with several demonstrations during talks in Qatar between envoys of the United States, China and other nations with the Taliban.

As outdoor protests have dropped, "the number and geographic spread of indoor protests appears to be increasing, with more groups in more locations," said Osborn.

"These protests appear to be aimed at showing solidarity within the community and raising awareness of the situation of Afghan women with international audiences, rather than reaching domestic audiences or confronting the Taliban," he added.

'Not afraid'

In the visuals of protests posted on social media, more than half the women appear fully covered, and about a third are partially covered by veil, a mask or a poster. A woman sometimes reads a statement of demands or grievances.

"The reason for wearing a face covering is so they cannot be identified by the Taliban," said Arwin of the Purple Saturdays Movement.

"But we have a number of women who participate in demonstrations without covering their faces to motivate other women to not be afraid. They are of the opinion that if we are afraid and silent, it is the biggest weapon for the Taliban against us," she said.

Still, with growing repression and abuse and threats directed at the protesters, the biggest concern is "not whether or not the data from protesters may get harder to find, but whether the women feel like there is little point in continuing to share their act of protest," Osborn said.

"The protesters may feel their actions go unseen."

For now, women's groups are preparing to hold protests on Aug. 15 to mark the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul, despite the risk of violence and imprisonment.

"We are protesting less than before on the street, just to keep the girls and women safe. But we are going to have a street protest on August 15," said Zholia Parsi, a women's rights activist.

"In a country where the whole world has turned its back on the women, any kind of movement is not without risks. It is very difficult, but we have to fight ... we are not afraid."

By REUTERS
Published: AUGUST 14, 2023