Women have found themselves to be at the centre of suffering when there is violence inflicted upon the state. At any given point in history, in any political or social upheaval, women have borne the brunt of the violence in the form of either being stripped of their agency or sexual violence. Be it a colonial occupation, war, partitions, and, in the case of Afghanistan—militant rule. The Taliban took over the Afghan government in 2021 when President Biden withdrew the United States troops from the nation after 21 years. The Taliban, quick to rename the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, are determined to enforce their interpretation of the Islamic Sharia Law in the country.
Implementing policies and strategies that mainly target women are one of the most concerning features of the Taliban rule. It reverses the progress women in Afghanistan made over the last 20 years. Women had started to gain access to better healthcare services, secure jobs, and see improvements in the field of education. To find this progress being discarded almost overnight is devastating. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was dissolved and re-established as The Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which implemented frustrating and contrary policies such as girls being allowed primary education and university-level education but not allowed secondary education. It is hard to imagine the negative impact this would have had on the psyche of a girl who realised that her last day of sixth grade was her last day of receiving an education. The Ministry of Vice and Virtue seems to be obsessed with women’s clothing— one of the reasons for girls not being allowed to secondary school is probably the uniform. Sadeq Akif Muhajir, The spokesperson of the Ministry, told Sandra Gathmann of Al Jazeera in an interview, that though the answer to this is easy—segregation—they do not have the finances to fund the building of separate schools for girls. Another feature of the onset of Taliban rule is the drastic decline in the economy of the country. Almost wholly funded by foreign aid, Afghanistan found itself cut off from almost all of it overnight when the government collapsed and the Taliban took over. Many intellectuals have declared that they find the Taliban incompetent to deal with the many crises of the country since they are too blinded by the power they now wield and fail to understand the gravity of the situation. They refuse to take help from people who are better equipped to deal with a situation like this for they do not share the same religious beliefs as them. In a video by Al Jazeera regarding the economy of Afghanistan, Professor of Politics at Kabul University, Faiz Zaland, claims that they are still in their “honeymoon period”. The country is now running on some foreign aid provided to them by the United States, but they will need much more to actually flourish and be a functioning economy.
The Taliban’s ban on allowing women to work is a huge contributing factor to the declining economy and also the unrest it causes in the minds of women. From the perspective of a woman who is not experiencing this first-hand and is only hearing about it from the media and news, the picture that comes to mind is one of despondency and helplessness. The reality, though, is different. The women in Afghanistan have decided that this is not going to be like the Taliban occupation in 1996. Women are trying to take the agency that they were stripped of back into their hands and are making the most efforts to educate themselves. A small private institution runs to teach young girls web design and coding; underground schools are doing their best to impart education to as many girls as they can. While they do not have the best possible resources, the women and girls in Afghanistan are not afraid—but full of grit and ambition. Sandra Gathmann of Al Jazeera, interviewed women across Afghanistan to get insights from people experiencing this situation in real time. Raihan, a student, said, “Being a woman should not be a shame but a source of strength.” The women have gone through this before; their mothers and grandmothers have— and they have to believe that their situation will improve, which they truly do. They know they are capable of making a life for themselves and are firm believers in the fact that it is not possible without hope, which they must not lose, despite how despondent their surroundings may be.
Comentarios