As World Neglects, Taliban Rules
“Today in Kabul a female cat has more freedom than a woman. A cat may go sit on her front stoop and feel the sun on her face, she may chase a squirrel in the park” - Meryl Streep at an event about Afghan women’s rights at the UN headquarters.
On Wednesday, September 15th, the House of Representatives voted to condemn President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and other government officials for the handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. 10 Democrats joined the Republicans in the 219-194 vote, which was mainly symbolic and doesn’t carry legal weight. But the official condemnation and the fact that it garnered 10 Democratic supporters in an election year is still a sharp Congressional reprimand to the country’s Commander-in-Chief and his cabinet. When rights granted during the 20-year U.S. occupation have been unraveled by the Taliban in just three years, is this response adequate to meet the growing exigency of women’s rights suppression in Afghanistan?
Morality Laws or Gender Apartheid?
Ever since the Taliban came back to power in 2021 and got rid of the constitution, they have enacted many laws restricting the rights of the public, especially women and girls. In August, they codified their restrictions, which include requiring women to cover their bodies from head to toe and to travel long distances with a male companion. They cannot go to school past 6th grade, they cannot look at members of the opposite sex who are not their family members, and, most severely, they cannot speak publicly. In private, they cannot speak so loudly that others will hear them. They can’t sing, read aloud, or even laugh at all. The enshrining in law of these crackdowns on female rights makes it nearly impossible to leave their homes, confining them to staying at home and bearing children but nothing else.
The Taliban asserts that the “vice and virtue” laws are in line with Islamic Sharia law. Many of the laws are to prevent temptation for men, but they have the ironic effect of objectifying and sexualizing women, furthering the Taliban’s justification. They will be enforced by the morality police, or the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Ministry. Enforcement often is manifested as beatings, imprisonment, and even self-regulation out of fear. Afghan women are starting to lose hope.
The World Looks On
As the sight of women becomes less and less common in Afghanistan, many countries seem to be looking the other way. Few others have stepped up. On September 26th, Germany, Australia, Canada, and the Netherlands took the first step in using the law against the Taliban. The countries declared that the group is violating the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and plan to take it to the International Court of Justice.
Afghan women around the world are protesting, as are women in Afghanistan, albeit quietly. Others must raise their voices in order to argue for them. It remains to be seen if the Taliban’s arguments that the new laws are for women’s protection and that their lives have been improved can be proven.
Why aren’t we hearing more about such widespread and severe abuses of women? Is Taliban rule being effectively normalized?
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