Skip to main content

'Abandoned' by West, Afghan women's dreams, ambitions come crashing down

By Katarzyna Rybarczyk*

For the last 20 years, women of Afghanistan have been encouraged to embrace their freedom and to pursue education, careers, and dreams. They have fought hard for their rights and equality and, although their social position remained fragile, their achievements have been outstanding. Women have been working as ambassadors, ministers, and members of the security forces.
Gender equality has been becoming an important aspect of domestic laws and tens of thousands of girls have been getting an education, which represents a great change from almost no girls at school during the last Taliban rule. Now, as Kabul has fallen to the Taliban, they are about to lose it all.

Dark days ahead for Afghan women

The narrative the Taliban have been putting forward is that their ideology is now more moderate and they want to preserve the progress that the country has made over the last two decades.
During a press conference that took place in Kabul, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said ‘We are going to allow women to work and study. We have got frameworks, of course. Women are going to be very active in the society but within the framework of Islam.’ He also added that ‘that ‘there will be no violence against women and no prejudice against them will be allowed.’
Sadly, however, it all is merely an act designed to facilitate their regaining control. His words seem hard to believe given that, as CNN reported, within less than three days of the Taliban taking over Kabul, women have disappeared from the streets.
Moreover, the beauty parlour’s posters of women wearing makeup and showing their hair are being covered with white paint and tens of female journalists have already been suspended indefinitely.
Even though even after the fall of the Taliban in 2001 many women continued to wear a burqa because of religious and cultural beliefs, millions decided to reject it and have been expressing their identity through clothes, make-up, or painted nails.
Every woman has a right to feel beautiful and choose how she looks, but now in Afghanistan full-body burqas will become compulsory again. During the last Taliban regime, if a woman disobeyed and showed her face in public, she risked inhumane punishments such as public lashings.

Women do not want to be passive victims

Under the Taliban rule last time, burqas were not the only limitation of women’s freedom. Women could only leave the house with a male chaperon and were banned from getting an education and working. They would also be forced into marriages with Taliban fighters.
Now, they are not ready to sacrifice their goals and ambitions nor do they agree to be deprived of their basic rights. In Kabul, a group of women showing incredible bravery organised a protest near the presidential palace, demanding social and political freedoms. Moreover, as an act of resistance, TOLO News, one of the country’s major media outlets, placed female presenters on screen again after they had been removed when the Taliban entered the capital city.
Still, the majority of Afghan women fear for their safety and choose to hide at home with their families or look for ways to escape the country. They know that provoking Taliban fighters or not obeying their rules could lead to them getting killed.
Some have hopes that the group has changed and is not going to completely remove women from society. Nevertheless, the Taliban’s interpretation of Sharia is so radical that the future remains unsure. Activists say that a likely scenario is that they are going to be imposing restrictions on women gradually, slowly eroding all their rights.

The West is to blame

Trying to justify plunging Afghanistan into chaos, the US President, Joe Biden, claims that ‘The US’ mission in Afghanistan was never supposed to have been nation building.’
And yet, when the US and its allies entered Afghanistan in 2001, they promised not only to fight against terrorism but also to establish democracy in the country and protect the rights of the Afghan people. That especially referred to women whose freedoms had been severely violated by the Taliban.
As their dreams and ambitions have come crashing down, it is no surprise that women of Afghanistan now feel betrayed and abandoned.
Hundreds of thousands of people around the world are expressing their solidarity with the Afghan people by sharing information on social media, raising funds, organising protests in major cities. Still, to be able to have a tangible impact and save innocent lives, political leaders also have to join the global movement to save Afghanistan.
As the Taliban advance and introduce new reforms, the international community should not abandon Afghan women and girls yet again.
---
*Political correspondent for Immigration Advice Service, an immigration law firm based in the UK but operating globally

Comments

samir sardana said…
Taliban has formed the government in Kabul !

It is the grand success of "Directorate S" of ISI !

S = 19th alphabet of the English Language,in the year when the world is plagued by COVID -19!

This is Taliban version 2,and so Directorate S + 2 = 21,which is the year 2021 !

Taliban hoisted the flag in Panjshir on 06.09.2021 = 11 in numerics !

Taliban declared govtt on 07.09.2021

Taliban declared 33 members of the Govtt,which is HALF the books of the Bible - as the other half Islam does NOT accept !

Govtt on 7th
Month is 9th
Taliban is version 2

On a Artithmetic Progression of 2 - the date of innaugration of Taliban state has to be the 11th !

7 - 9 - 11 !

It is a divine signal and the start of the Islamic Reinassance !

Now the question is what time will the ceremony start on the 11th !

This is PROVIDENCE ! dindooohindoo

TRENDING

'Draconian' Kerala health law follows WHO diktat: Govt readies to take harsh measures

By Dr Maya Valecha*  The Governor of Kerala has signed the Kerala Public Health Bill, which essentially reverses the people’s campaign in healthcare services in Kerala for decentralisation. The campaign had led to relinquishing of state powers in 1996, resulting in improvement of health parameters in Kerala. Instead, now, enforcement of law through the exercise of power, fines, etc., and the implementation of protocol during the pandemic, are considered of prime importance.

Reject WHO's 'draconian' amendments on pandemic: Citizens to Union Health Minister

By Our Representative  Several concerned Indian citizens have written to the Union Health Minister to reject amendments to the International Health Regulations (IHR) of the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted during the 75th World Health Assembly (WHA75) in May 2022, apprehending this will make the signatories surrender their autonomy to the “unelected, unaccountable and the whimsical WHO in case of any future ‘pandemics’.”

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Bihar rural women entrepreneurs witness 50% surge in awareness about renewal energy

By Mignonne Dsouza*  An endline survey conducted under the Bolega Bihar initiative revealed a significant increase in awareness of renewable energy among women, rising from 25% to 76% in Nalanda and Gaya. Renu Kumari, a 34-year-old entrepreneur from Nalanda, Bihar, operates a village eatery that serves as the primary source of income for her family, including her husband and five children. However, a significant portion of her profits was being directed toward covering monthly electricity expenses that usually reach Rs 2,000. 

Work with Rajasthan's camel herders: German scientist wins World Cookbook Award 2023

By Rosamma Thomas*  Gourmand World Cookbook Awards are the only awards for international food culture. This year, German scientist  Ilse Kohler Rollefson , founder of Camel Charisma, the first of India’s camel dairies, in Pali district of Rajasthan, won the award for her work with camel herders in Rajasthan, and for preparing for the UN International Year of Camelids, 2024. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Why is electricity tariff going up in India? Who is the beneficiary? A random reflection

By Thomas Franco*  Union Ministry of Power has used its power under Section 11 of the Electricity Act, 2003 to force States to import coal which has led to an increase in the cost of electricity production and every consumer is paying a higher tariff. In India, almost everybody from farmers to MSMEs are consumers of electricity.

'Pro-corporate agenda': Odisha crackdown on tribal slum dwellers fighting for land rights

By Our Representative  The civil rights network Campaign Against State Repression (CASR), even as condemning what it calls “brutal repression” on the Adivasi slum dwellers of Salia Sahi in Bhubaneshwar by the Odisha police, has said that the crackdown was against the tribals struggling for land rights in order to “stop the attempts at land-grab by the government.”

Deplorable, influential sections 'still believe' burning coal is essential indefinitely

By Shankar Sharma*  Some of the recent developments in the power sector, as some  recent news items show, should be of massive relevance/ interest to our policy makers in India. Assuming that our authorities are officially mandated/ committed to maintain a holistic approach to the overall welfare of all sections of our society, including the flora, fauna and general environment, these developments/ experiences from different parts of the globe should be clear pointers to the sustainable energy pathways for our people.

Hazrat Aisha’s age was 16, not 6: 'Weak' Hadith responsible for controversy

Sacred chamber where Prophet and Aisha used to live By Dr Mike Ghouse* Muslims must take the responsibility to end the age-old controversy about Hazrat Aisha’s age at the time of her marriage to the Prophet (pbuh) – it was 16, not 6 (minimum was 16, Max 23 per different calculations). The Hadiths published were in good faith, but no one ever checked their authenticity, and they kept passing on from scholar to scholar and book to book.  Thanks to 9/11, Muslims have started questioning and correcting the Hadiths, Seerah, and mistranslations of the Quran. Now, the Ulema have to issue an opinion, also known as Fatwa, to end it and remove those Hadith entries. Mustafa Akyol, a scholar of Islam, implores Muslims to stop deifying “the received traditions” and critically study their religious past, shedding rigid legalism and close-mindedness. Someone else used the phrase “copycat Muslims” to identify scholars who copied what was given to them and passed it on without researching or questioni