The Taliban's war on women: An extremist ideology
- mitchelle
- Sep 4, 2021
- 4 min read
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you will recognise the feeling of uneasiness when you hear the name ‘Taliban’. Even though the terrorist organisation has been active in Afghanistan since 1994, the rest of the world came to fear the name when they made major global headlines for ‘shooting a 15-year-old girl in the head’ for speaking out against their ban on girls in school. Recently, the Taliban have been making global headlines once more for toppling the Aghani government in a power surge that will be remembered decades from now. But that’s not what this article is about. This is about their vile treatment of women in and around the country and their constant and ongoing violation of women’s rights, the ideology behind it and why it’s dangerously harmful to all afghans and Muslims around the world. The Taliban is infamous for being religious extremists, Muslims around the world are crucially vocal about distancing the peaceful religion from the organisation.
Now that we’ve been briefed on who the Taliban are, let’s talk about their long and cruel history of human’s rights violations specifically targeting women. Afghanistan grabbed power over the capital, Kabul, in 1996. After this, they issued mandates forbidding women to work, attend school, or even leave their homes without a male guardian. Afghani women were forced to wear a burqa in public at all times, were not allowed to wear the colour white and were not allowed to be treated by male doctors. This led to many hospitals being ordered to suspend their medical services, in fact, at one point in time, there was only one hospital sanctioned to treat women. This single hospital lacked necessary life-saving equipment like oxygen, surgical components, x-ray machines, electricity and clean water. This led to a large amount of unnecessary female deaths either due to lack of access to health care facilities or lack of care issued by the hospital. One instance could be the death of a 10-year-old female in Kabul due to untreated diarrhoea.
But why are there such harsh restrictions on women’s free will instructed by the Taliban? What beliefs do they possess to will them into such barbarism against the female populace? The Taliban roughly translates from Pashto to ‘students’ in English. They are a group of rural Pashtuns that follow Shari’a law as a ‘code of life’. This is the Islamic law that is followed by many Islamic ruling countries, yet it is not interpreted as idiosyncratically as the followers of the Taliban. In sociology, we are taught that religion governs beliefs that form norms, values, cultures and lifestyles. However, the religious laws enacted by the Taliban are not reflective of that in the Qur’an, neither does it represent the beliefs of the rest of the Muslim populace, that figure is close to 1.8 billion in the world. Many believe that the beliefs of the Taliban closely resemble that of a tribal rural code of behaviour applied only in some parts of Afghanistan, rather than the Shari’a law. From a sociological perspective, it is believed that gender equality is a particularly modern concept. This can be seen not only in Asia but also in western societies. Women were not allowed to work presumably male jobs until the war highlighted their need in the economy. Rural citizens, ones who are poorly, if so, educated, adopt the beliefs taught and observed at home itself, with scarce secondary socialisation, this can be harmful to children to adopt and internalise the acceptable norms and value consensus of a larger society. This could explain the adoption of such a harsh and frankly, evil ideology.
However, it is imperative to recognise the gaps between the extremist ideology of the Taliban, and the peaceful and harmonious religion of Islam. No religion in the world has been characterised as violent and Islam is no different. When interviewed by the PHR, 95% of Afghan women believed that the orders of the Taliban do not even merely represent the requirements or teachings of Islam. Many historians believe that the organisation’s strict interpretation of the teachings is more of manipulations used to barter political power over the society of Afghanistan. Furthermore, it is important to understand that there are no authoritative cleric bodies in the religion that has the right to enforce laws over the entire Muslim body. Simply put, there is no true authority under the Taliban’s name. Moreover, it is a commonly held belief that the lives of Muslims everywhere are not only shaped by the Shari’a law, but also by culture, spiritual inclination and a significant amount of personal choice in matters of religious life. For example, Muslim women have the choice to cover their hair, face or body however they choose without judgement because it is their right. Lastly, contrary to the Taliban stances on gender issues, there is a strong authority within Islamic law and traditions for affirmatively promoting the education of both girls and boys; for the right of women to work, own property, earn a living, and participate in public life; and for the importance of enabling women to take the steps necessary to protect and promote their health and that of their families. This, all from a sociological perspective only indicates that everything, down to reality itself is open to interpretation and value consensus aids in maintaining social order. Thus concluding that reality is a social construct.
With the Taliban now back in control of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, the fate of the female population is in jeopardy more than ever, and women’s rights have never been more in need of protection. The Taliban claim to be in favour of creating a ‘tolerant government’ yet incidents of domestic abuse and violence have gone up tenfold since the terrorist organisation’s surge of power on August 15. A rise in attacks against schools have placed 1 million children in fear of missing out on an education and over 1.4 million girl children are terrorised by the possibility of being forced into child marriage, child labour, and sexual exploitation. The global community needs to act out against this extremist ideology because the world cannot afford to turn its back on this gross injustice. Want to help? Below is a list of resources and charity organisations doing their best to educate the world on this and save the women and children of Afghanistan. Do your part. Educate.
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