Taliban 2.0

 

When my phone pinged in the night with the news that the Taliban had taken over Kabul my heart went out to the women of Afghanistan as never before. All the progress made in the last 20 years is now lost. Women in the country are concerned about their future. Their freedoms will again be restricted.

Women’s rights activists fear for their lives for going against Taliban "ideologies and thoughts." They fear that the Taliban will force women to go back to the same situation they were in when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001. During that period. they imposed strict rules. Women were unable to work or be in contact with men other than blood relatives and had to wear a burqa while out in public. If women violated the rules, they could face severe punishments from the Taliban, such as imprisonment, torture, or even death. Women were often publicly flogged or executed during the Taliban's rule of Afghanistan. Taliban 2.0 will be a repetition of Taliban 1.0.

On August 13, 2021, UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres tweeted, “It is particularly horrifying and heartbreaking to see reports of the hard-won rights of Afghan girls and women being ripped away from them .” Now after the so-called peaceful transition of power, people are desperate to flee Afghanistan to save their lives, particularly if they worked for the foreign forces.

As women living in the western world we have probably not realized what life under the Taliban was like for our sisters in Afghanistan and now again will be. Starting at age 8, girls were not allowed to be in direct contact with males other than a close “blood relative”, husband or in-law. They should not appear in the streets without a blood relative or without wearing a burqa. High-heeled shoes are forbidden, as no man should hear a woman's footsteps lest it excite him. Women should not only not be seen but they should also not be heard, and so a woman should not speak loudly in public so that no stranger can hear their voices. All ground and first-floor residential windows should be painted over or screened to prevent women from being visible from the street. Women were not allowed to go to the balconies of their apartments or houses. There was a ban on women's presence on radio, television, or at public gatherings of any kind. Segregated bus services were introduced to prevent males and females from traveling on the same bus. Riding bicycles or motorbikes was forbidden, as well as taking a taxi without a male family member.

On September 30, 1996, the Taliban decreed that all women should be banned from employment. Female health professionals were exempted from the employment ban, yet they operated in much-reduced circumstances. During the Taliban's five-year reign in Afghanistan, girls and women were almost completely prohibited from receiving an education. As women were not allowed to work, female teachers were not permitted to teach. It was supposed to be only a temporary suspension and that females would return to school and work once facilities and street security were adapted to prevent cross-gender contact.

Before the Taliban took power in Afghanistan male doctors had been allowed to treat women in hospitals, but the decree that no male doctor should be allowed to touch the body of a woman in consultation was soon introduced. With fewer female health professionals in employment, women’s health care was often lacking.

If we thought it was hard to be kept in our homes during the Covid-19 lockdowns, just imagine what life is like for women in Afghanistan in their isolation and confinement. Their apartments resemble a prison and are somber due to the darkened windows. Going out onto the balcony is forbidden. There is not much for them to do and so they have not much to talk about either, They live in a black pit physically and emotionally. Afghan women lived like that for 5 years during Taliban 1.0 and it looks as if Taliban 2.0 will be the same.

Many Afghan men are tired of the armed conflicts of the last 20 years and welcome the Taliban as they hope for law and order and an end of the struggle now that the Taliban have taken over. As most men approve of patriarchy, they do not consider what these laws mean for the female population of the country. They do not have to be restricted under the burqa. The plight of Afghan women is shocking. It breaks my heart that the progress made in the last 20 years should be lost and that we are in the west are abandoning them.

 

 

Photo: Wikipedia; Steve Evans from India and USA - Flickr