The Taliban’s unceasing war on Afghan women

Afghan women are no longer allowed to speak in public. Reading aloud and singing are strictly prohibited. Women are not allowed to gaze upon men to whom they are not related or married. They are forced to cover themselves from head to toe.

It is disgraceful and absurd, however, that so many commentators are shocked by the Taliban’s latest decrees—as if the imposition of such draconian laws based on religious misogyny was somehow impossible to anticipate.

Women’s rights in Afghanistan were destined to be curtailed ever since the Taliban’s brutal theocratic rule was restored in 2021. The new laws brought in last month are merely the extension of the Taliban’s years-long onslaught against women’s rights.

The Taliban’s war on Afghan women is a full-fledged assault on humanity. Not only are they closing schools and confining women in their homes, but they are also erasing women from the social sphere, depriving them of their basic human dignity, bodily autonomy, voices, and visibility. Culture and tradition are not at issue here; rather, the problem is the intimidation and violence meted out under the pretext of religion and designed to control women.

The Taliban has won a victory on behalf of religious fanatics the world over who seek to subjugate women into oblivion. There should be a worldwide outcry against this religion-based misogyny, but it seems that crimes against humanity committed under the guise of divinity are to be brushed aside.

It is tragic that the United Nations’s condemnation of the new laws barely acknowledges the religious foundation of the Taliban’s misogyny, instead giving voice to those who say the Taliban’s actions are ‘un-Islamic’. Whatever theological debates are to be had, it is imperative to recognise the religious roots of the Taliban’s laws. The assault on women’s rights in Afghanistan is a direct result of imposing Sharia on Afghan society. Denying this impedes efforts to address the root cause of gross violations of women’s rights all across the Muslim world.

As against all this disappointing obfuscation, I recently had the privilege of meeting the brave Afghan woman Madina Darwazi at the Celebrating Dissent conference in Oslo organised by the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain and the Norwegian secularist group Dømmekraft.

After the Taliban retook power on 15 August 2021, Darwazi was among the brave Afghan women who stood up and fought on the frontlines against their brutal, misogynistic regime. She refused to back down and didn’t even blink when the Taliban tried to shoot her. She made a brilliant speech in Oslo entitled ‘We Do Not Accept the Taliban’.

During her speech, she defiantly said:

Freedom for [the] women of Afghanistan belongs to the whole world. That means I believe that all human beings are born free and they are supposed to live freely, and no one has the right to suppress them under the name of any religion or any ideology. The whole world is watching women fighting for their basic rights in Iran and Afghanistan. The Islamic regime in Iran and the terrorist group of the Taliban in Afghanistan have the same misogynistic attitudes and policies. Though they dress differently, they share the same goal, which is to oppress women. I am happy that women in Iran and Afghanistan are aware of their rights. They fight for their rights, though we may not get many achievements since the Taliban is supported by foreign powers. We are, however, not [dismayed], and will keep on fighting.

She reminded me of the courage of Lale (not her real name), a 16-year-old Afghan girl who was arrested and forced into a police truck in Afghanistan for wearing ‘improper’ attire in January this year. She reported, ‘My attire was modest and even included a face mask—a precaution I had adopted since the Taliban takeover. But they beat me anyway, insisting that my outfit was improper.’

Lale suffered severe beatings and was held for two days and nights. She was released only after signing a paper promising not to leave her house without the compulsory head covering. She was also dubbed an infidel for taking English language classes—from which she was banned. But nothing could stop her from raising her voice against this injustice.

Meanwhile, too many Western progressives, who purport to be the champions of women’s rights, remain silent over these terrible abuses. Too often, Western leftists ignore the victims when those victims are women oppressed by Islamism.

For example, the UK Home Office extended an invitation to its employees to participate in ‘World Hijab Day’ this year, even though its own rules state that women may seek refuge on the grounds of religious persecution if they are coerced into ‘compliance with religious codes or dress.’

This is indicative of a wider problem: progressive ideology demanding that we celebrate the hijab, an emblem of the Islamist movement that seeks to subjugate women. For some progressives, the hijab is a symbol of ‘empowerment’. Try telling that to the women of Iran or the women in the West who face abuse, ostracism, and violence from their families and communities for daring to refuse to wear it. While such progressives may denounce sexism, they are silent about the heinous misogyny common in countries and communities that adhere to Sharia.

Religious extremists, whether from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, ISIS, or the Taliban, enforce such harsh laws in the name of divine morality. No one can question these ‘divine’ commandments since the consequences of being labelled a heretic or infidel are terrible. Many women trapped in these societies face hardship in silence, and those who try to rebel face cruel treatment at the hands of their religious leaders.

Why should misogynistic religious beliefs be immune to criticism? Why is it okay for women in other parts of the globe to struggle for equality and freedom, while Muslim women are expected to adhere to the patriarchal cultural and religious beliefs of their societies?

Sadly, in order to protect the feelings of religious fanatics in the West, discussing women’s rights under Islamic regimes has become very difficult. Far too frequently, bogus charges of ‘racism’ and ‘Islamophobia’ are tossed around to undermine legitimate criticism of religious misogyny. This unhinged political correctness is essentially outright resistance to standing with the courageous women who, in the face of religious extremism and violence, are defending freedom and emancipation for all women.

Political correctness that tolerates the oppression of women who have endured horrendous torture at the hands of the Islamists is fundamentally flawed. In Sharia-compliant societies, it is nearly impossible to question Islamic dogma; this is echoed in the West, where such questioning is silenced by so-called women’s rights advocates.

Many women have suffered horrendously at the hands of vicious Islamist regimes and groups, but they have been abandoned in their attempts to achieve justice. Liberals in the West must set their priorities straight. They have embraced the strategy of appeasement, ignoring the horrors inflicted upon women by Islamist regimes like those in Iran and Afghanistan. They seem stuck in a multicultural utopianism that prioritises ‘respecting all cultures’ over women’s rights, but history will never forget how many women they let down by giving in to the demands of fanatically misogynistic ideologies.

The world community cannot remain obligingly silent in the face of the Taliban and their ilk. We must remain steadfast in defending women’s rights. We must protest and denounce the Taliban and curtail any interactions with them, whether political or commercial. We must unite not just for the women of Afghanistan but also in defence of the idea that human rights are unalienable and universal.

Related reading

A Small Light: Acts of Resistance in Afghanistan, by Zwan Mahmod

The hijab is the wrong symbol to represent women, by Khadija Khan

The ‘Women’s Revolution’: from two activists in Iran, by Rastine Mortad and Sadaf Sepiddasht

Secularism is a feminist issue, by Megan Manson