The take-over of Afghanistan by a political jihadist group called the Taliban has left many Afghans in shock, disappointed, and hurt. The future of Afghanistan remains bleak as the events which have occurred within the past two months have created a shift in the everyday life of an Afghan.
However, this isn’t a battle that’s existed for only two months, it’s a battle that’s existed for over 20 years when the Taliban had worked to take over after the martyr of Dr. Najibullah in 1996. Due to this, the Taliban successfully took over Afghanistan in 2001, this regime caused the rights of women to become non-existent. The Taliban had taken away any forms of freedoms women had, such as education and work; it all came to a cease. The Taliban are a group that many, including myself, are not happy to live under or have run a country because of their past lies, hostilities, and promises of better land. There are various changes in the current Taliban group compared to the previous group that had taken over and as a diaspora Afghan, many parents, including my own, had to flee their beloved homeland under the last Taliban regime, as it was the most extreme of places for them to live under over 20 years ago.
Not only is it important to recognise the faults and changes in the Taliban but to establish a real line of argument about “what rights our women have left?” or “if the women of Afghanistan will have any rights left under the new Taliban regime?” Through a historical analysis, it’s vital to point out that there has been a grave change in how the previous Taliban group and the current Taliban group have decided to introduce Islam. Over 20 years ago, women were not heard or seen in society to the extent where, if they were to go outdoors, they’d have to be accompanied by a male figure, either their father, brother, or husband. Women over eight could not receive an education.
Compare this, to the modern-day Taliban, where there is a promise of allowing women to be educated and to continue work in institutions like hospitals, schools, and mosques. The current promise of allowing women to fulfil their ambitions and have the chance to be educated and work is a limited promise. The Taliban will ensure gender segregation is introduced where possible and if not, women would be restricted i.e., in working in places of power, like parliament and policing. This only backtracks the progress made over the last 20 years, where the voices of women mattered, they were heard and seen in Afghanistan and pushed into politics. The progressive nature of women’s rights, before the Taliban, only came to show that by 2021, the number of women in the Civil Service had reached an outstanding 27% compared to the Taliban regime in 2001 which had zero women in places of power.
The current Taliban’s aim of introducing shariah/Islamic law brings about the worry that women’s rights won’t exist. However, Islamic law is always misinterpreted and misunderstood. Islamic Law and Islam in itself has given women many of the rights in which they hold today. It allows women to work, be educated, and have housing rights. Many of these rights are what the current Taliban group, is looking to install within Afghanistan but as previously pointed out, it will come with the cost of minimising their opportunities in certain fields and gender segregation, in places of education and work especially. This is even more so evident through the new temporary Taliban government that has been established, who are all men and this will only belittle the voices of Afghan women more. The main issue is that western systems cannot work in a country, that has been at war since time could tell.
Through many years, Afghanistan’s system has always worked through monarchies and dictatorships which always end up failing due to the corruption of the west and its forceful ways in trying to assert its demands and ideologies, just like they did in the middle east and parts of Africa. Now, the main thing to bear in mind, is that women’s rights will always be something that’s being fought for, even now, as the women of Afghanistan, protest in the streets, demanding for their futures.
The most any Afghan could ask for is for those of privilege to spread awareness, to use social media platforms to educate others, and to listen to our voices instead of speaking over them. Write to your MPs about the dire situation in Afghanistan and help Afghan refugees settle into western places. Most of all, recognising the prominent struggle within women's rights in Afghanistan and the portrayal of how afghan men will be viewed as ‘Taliban’ within western societies, must always be addressed to avoid further discrimination and oppressive systems.
---- Sima Mangal, Guest Blogger (Vice President of Warwick Afghan Society)
