By Asad Mirza 

 

THE slew of anti-women measures adopted by the Taliban Government in Afghanistan has essentially gone against them, further isolating them globally and making them a pariah. Reportedly, a handful of Afghan women courageously held a demonstration in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on 8 March, calling on the international community to protect Afghan women. This was the second International Women’s Day observed under the Taliban-led Government in Afghanistan, which swept back to power in August 2021, and more or less marked a year-and-a-half of increasing misery for Afghan women. In a statement to mark the International Women’s Day, the head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, RozaOtunbayeva said it has been distressing to witness the Taliban’s methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere. The UN mission said the crackdown was a “colossal act of national self-harm” at a time when Afghanistan faces some of the world’s largest humanitarian and economic crises.

 

The anti-women Taliban decisions have faced international condemnation, including by some Muslim countries even. The State of Qatar, earlier this week expressed deep concern over the Afghan caretaker Government’s decisions which negatively affect Afghan women and girls’ rights, especially suspending their studies in secondary schools and universities and banning their work in non-Governmental organisations. The Qatari condemnation was conveyed in a statement delivered by the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Office in Geneva, HE Dr. Hind Abdul Rahman Al Muftah during an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, within the framework of the 52nd regular session of the Human Rights Council. The Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkey, Mehmet Kemal Bozay, has said that the international community must not allow the situation in Afghanistan to deteriorate “even further.” The Secretary General of the Organisation of the Islamic Cooperation (OIC), Hissein Brahim Taha, spoke in Geneva and, reiterated the OIC’s condemnation of Kabul’s edicts banning women from education and work, saying: “It is against our religion.” The biggest crackdown on teenage girls and university students came just days before Women’s Day, when earlier this week the authorities banned them from secondary schools and higher educational institutions. No country has officially recognised the Taliban Government as Afghanistan’s legitimate ruler, with the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition.

 

According to UNESCO, currently, 80 pc of school-aged Afghan girls and young women - totalling 2.5 million people - are out of school.The Taliban’s decision to keep girls’ schools shuttered has reversed significant gains in female education during the past 20 years. In another anti-women diktat, Taliban Government has annulled divorce in Afghanistan, forcing divorced women to go back to abusive husbands. Lawyers say that several women have reported being dragged back into abusive marriages after Taliban commanders annulled their divorces. The Taliban Government adheres to an austere interpretation of Islam and has imposed severe restrictions on women’s lives that the United Nations called “gender-based apartheid”. According to the UN Mission in the country, nine out of 10 women in Afghanistan experience physical, sexual or psychological violence from their partner. Divorce, however, is far greater a taboo than the abuse itself and women who part with their husbands sustain many atrocities at the hands of society. Meanwhile, a prominent group of Afghan and Iranian women are backing a campaign calling for gender apartheid to be recognised as a crime under international law.

 

What perplexes one is that though the Taliban describe most of these decisions as Islamic, in fact they are completely unIslamic. Islam gives equal rights to men and women in all spheres of life, including, education, inheritance, right to work, say in marriage. Yet, in action Taliban goes completely against the spirit and teachings of Islam. Instead, if they had adopted a new pragmatic and forward looking approach towards reorganising the Afghan society, it would have gone in their favour and would have helped them to consolidate their power in the country. As currently there seems to be no political force in the country, which could counter the Taliban. In addition, it would have provided them legitimacy and support from the so-called Islamic countries, if only they would have chosen to uphold the Islamic teachings, which in reality, they have failed to do.