譯/莊蕙嘉、核稿/樂慧生
美軍將撤 阿富汗婦女陷恐懼深淵
Farzana Ahmadi watched as a neighbor in her village in northern Afghanistan was flogged by Taliban fighters last month. The crime: Her face was uncovered.
上個月在阿富汗北部，法札娜•阿瑪迪看著一位同村鄰人被神學士戰士鞭打，罪名是：她沒有遮蓋臉部。
"Every woman should cover their eyes," Ahmadi recalled one Taliban member saying.
「每個女人都該遮好眼睛。」阿瑪迪回想一名神學士成員這麼說。
People silently watched as the beating dragged on.
人們默默看著這場鞭打持續。
Fear — even more potent than in years past — is gripping Afghans now that U.S. and NATO forces will depart the country in the coming months. They will leave behind a publicly triumphant Taliban, who many expect will seize more territory and reinstitute many of the same oppressive rules they enforced under their regime in the 1990s.
數月後美國和北約部隊將離開這個國家，這讓阿富汗人陷入甚於既往的恐懼。美國和北約離去後神學士將可公然耀武揚威，許多人預期神學士將占據更多土地，並重新頒行許多1990年代他們治下實施的壓迫性規定。
The New York Times spoke to many Afghan women — members of civil society, politicians, journalists and others — about what comes next in their country, and they all said the same thing: Whatever happens will not bode well for them.
紐約時報和許多阿富汗女性交談，包括公民社會成員、政界人士、記者及其他人士，提到國家接下來會變成怎樣時，她們的回答都相同：怎麼變對她們來說都不會是好事。
Whether the Taliban take back power by force or through a political agreement with the Afghan government, their influence will almost inevitably grow. In a country in which an end to nearly 40 years of conflict is nowhere in sight, many Afghans talk of an approaching civil war.
不論神學士是藉由武力或透過和阿富汗政府簽署政治協議重獲權力，他們的勢力勢必增強。這個國家內部衝突已持續近40年且仍無結束跡象，許多阿富汗人覺得內戰正在逼近。
"All the time, women are the victims of men's wars," said Raihana Azad, a member of Afghanistan's Parliament. "But they will be the victims of their peace, too."
「女性一直都是男性交戰的受害者。」阿富汗國會議員萊哈娜•阿札德說，「但她們也會是他們媾和的受害者。」
When the Taliban governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, it barred women and girls from taking most jobs or going to school, and practically made them prisoners in their own homes.
神學士1996至2001年統治阿富汗時，禁止女性從事於大部分的工作或上學，還讓她們實際上成為困在自己家中的囚犯。
After the U.S. invasion to topple the Taliban and defeat al-Qaida in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Western rallying cry for bringing women's rights to the already war-torn country seemed to many a noble undertaking.
2011年9月11日的恐怖攻擊發生後，美國入侵阿富汗以推翻神學士並擊潰凱達，西方國家高舉要為這個已被戰爭撕裂的國家迎來女性權利的大旗，許多人視之為高尚之舉。
Over two decades, the United States spent more than $780 million to promote women's rights in Afghanistan. The result is a generation who came of age in a period of hope for women's equality.
20年來，美國推動阿富汗女性權益花費超過7億8000萬美元，成果是造就了一個在對女性平等懷抱希望的時期臻於成年的世代。
Although progress has been uneven, girls and women now make up about 40% of students. They have joined the military and police, held political office, become internationally recognized singers, competed in the Olympics and on robotics teams, climbed mountains and more — all things that were nearly impossible at the turn of the century.
即使過程並不平順，女性現在占學生總數的40%。她們也加入軍隊和警方，擔任政治職務，成為國際知名歌手，參加奧運競賽及機器人研究團隊，登山及其他，這些本世紀之初幾乎全是不可能的。
Across the country, schools are now being forced to contemplate whether they will be able to stay open.
阿富汗全國各地的學校如今正被迫思索是否還能維持運作。
