Afghan Women- The Clock Turns Back

There are innumerable stories of Afghan women who have tried to take their lives to try and escape their abuse at the hands of a man.

Last Tuesday on the 17th of August, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid spoke at his first news conference in Kabul. The world’s concerns regarding women’s rights in Afghanistan now that the Taliban has taken over, were vaguely addressed: “We are going to allow women to work and study within certain frameworks”, Mujahid said. “Women are going to be very active in the society, but within the frameworks of Islam. Women are a key part of society and we are guaranteeing all their rights within the limits of Islam”.

So, what are the frameworks and limits of Islam according to the Taliban? 20 years ago, Afghanistan experienced the calamity of having the misogynistic interpretation of Sharia being imposed by the Taliban. Women and girls were pulled out of their jobs and schools, makeup was banned and some had their fingers cut off for wearing nail polish, high heels were banned due to the audible sound of women walking in them, and burqas were made mandatory. A lot of women were stoned, beaten, raped, and flogged in the streets; under the Taliban, their only crime was living in their country as women. They were completely excluded from public life.

“I still have nightmares about it. I was a child growing up under that government. I have seen my own mother getting beaten up by the Taliban because she had a sick child to take to the hospital, and my father couldn’t make it on time to go with her”. Niloofar Rahmani, Afghanistan’s first female pilot, recalls a traumatic childhood experience under the Taliban’s previous rule aWer they had seized Kabul in 1996, in an exclusive interview with India Today.

Women, especially widows without men in their households, are facing the same threats as Niloofar’s mother 20 years ago. The same issues that were prevalent then, are prevalent now.

CNN reported the story of Najia, a mother of 4 children in the Faryab province, who was beaten to death by the Taliban. She was forced to cook for 15 Taliban fighters, but stated that she was poor and unable to cook for so many. She was beaten by the fighters with their AK47s, while her daughter Manizha yelled at them to stop. They threw a grenade into the house and fled—the Taliban has since denied the killing of Najia.

More than $2 trillion dollars have been spent on Afghanistan since 2001, but in less than two weeks, Afghanistan has moved backwards into the dark and oppressive period of the 90s. “After 20 years I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces”, Biden says, defending his decision in his first remarks since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan.

The state of Afghan women has put them in a victim spotlight worldwide. “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims”, said the Taliban’s cultural commission member Enamullah Samangani.

Simultaneously, the Taliban has continually targeted women in positions of power— “I’m sitting here waiting for them to come. There is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me, I can’t leave my family. And anyway, where would I go?” Says Zarifa Ghafari, Afghanistan’s first female Mayor, to iNews. It remains unclear as to what women will be allowed to achieve under the rule of a group that considers a devout woman to be one who is neither seen nor heard— neither a victim, nor a woman in power.

While the Taliban has described itself to be soWer and different than its predecessors, many Afghan women like Niloofar and Zarifa remain wary and afraid of the Taliban and their intentions. “They have proven themselves in the past as to the kind of people they are. They have always, always been against women. Their war has always been against women. They have always silenced women”, Niloofar says in her interview. “We have already been witness of how many houses they (the Taliban) have been to, taking the little girls as their slaves”, she says painfully, answering as to whether she believes they can fulfil their publicly made promises. “They are forcing them and taking them away from their families. What kind of human takes away 8-9 year old little girls from her own parents?”. “The world tried to help, tried to bring freedom and peace for the girls.. and now? It’s all gone, in the blink of an eye. It’s really frustrating to see this, I don’t know how the world is silent.”

The remarks of Smangani ominously foretell the unfolding riots for the Afghan women. He says that “They should be in government structure according to Shariah law. The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”

Around the same time this statement was made, an old video drawn from a Vice News documentary aired on the US network ShowTime went viral, showing Taliban fighters laughing when asked if the Afghan people will be able to vote for female politicians. One of them then asks to stop filming.

This begs the question as to whether any forthcoming women that may be given the opportunities to work to run Afghanistan alongside men, will have the support of the male population in capitalising on these opportunities. There are innumerable stories of Afghan women who have tried to take their lives to try and escape their abuse at the hands of a man. Over 80% of suicide attempts made in Afghanistan are by women, although globally there are more male suicides. Close to 90% of Afghan women have experienced some form of abuse. It is clear that the pain, oppression and abuse is prevalent, and there is an abundance of men whose nature of violence towards women and overall perception of them corresponds with that of the Taliban, even without the group in power.

This regime geared towards oppressing women is deeply rooted in centuries of patriarchy that has a lot more to with culture than it does religion. People all over the world are highly skeptical as to whether the Taliban can learn and possess the mindset required to help their country get rid of these ideas that are so dangerous to their women and young girls. “If (the Taliban) want any respect, if they want any recognition by the international community, they have to be very conscious of the fact that we will be watching how women and girls and, more broadly, the civilian community is treated by them as they try to form a government,” says Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the US Ambassador to the UN in an interview with MSNBC last Tuesday.

A lot has changed in Afghanistan and the world since 2001, post-eviction of the Taliban from the repressed nation. While optimists would like us to believe that social media, smartphones and the internet will mitigate the return of the barbaric Taliban we saw in 1996-2001, the fact is that technology is almost helpless when religious bigots and pathological autocrats come to power to oppress their own people, especially women, in the name of religion.