The Talabanis Turn Back the Clock - on Woman’s
Rights
By Patrick Brigham - published in the SWN during 1996
On September 27th 1996, an extremist militia
seized power in Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, and other than quelling the
ardour of the pro-Communist factions, it simultaneously plunged the occupied
territories into a profound state of ‘Gender Apartheid’ by which term it is
implied that women in Afghanistan have been stripped of all their normal human
rights –
‘If this was happening to any other class of
people around the world, there would be a tremendous outcry. We must make sure
these same standards are applied when it is women and girls who are brutally
treated.’ - Elinor Smeal - President of the Feminist
Majority Foundation.
During the Russian occupation of Afghanistan,
the cold war was virtually coming to its bitter end. Known at the time as Russia’s
Vietnam, there was no way that the formal Russian Military could subdue certain
elements in Afghanistan, and they left in 1989. After all, the British also
gave up trying to colonise the Afghans in the last century, or least admitted a
stalemate in their attempt! What the Russian presence did do, however, was to
evoke the Che Guevara syndrome; the intervention of a number of pro Islamic
factions - especially the Mujahedeen - who were
financed; at the time, by many countries - including the CIA - in its
early days. Now, the only states to recognise the Taliban are Saudi Arabia,
Pakistan, and the Emirates. In a recent report by the US Department of State
released on September 9th of this year, they too have made their position quite
clear, and do not condone the present almost medieval state of affairs which
exist, in most parts of this country. Now, the west only recognises the Rabani
Government, and is actively against the present Islamic fundamentalist rule
that exists, and the militia of Massoud Shah. Rule is now by religious decree.
Since 1996, women have almost been banished
from the workforce, girls schools have been officially closed, and all women
have been expelled from universities. By virtue of the non existence of women
doctors in hospitals, women and young girls are no longer generally admitted to
hospitals or allowed to be examined by male doctors, and because of the virtual
prohibition of female working staff, they have been precluded from any normal
medical care. Women are also forced to wear the Burka - a dress which covers
their whole body, with only a mesh opening in the head dress, through which to
see - and are prohibited to leave home unless accompanied by a close male
relative. To cap it all, women have been frequently beaten, flogged and killed
for violating these primitive Taliban decrees.
The consequences of these abnormal decrees are
horrendous, despite certain minor changes caused by consistent international
outcry. Some ‘war widows’ who had been reduced to begging in order to feed
their children; in some restricted cases, are now allowed to work, and a small
number of hospitals now have segregated
wards for a few women. But the education of girls remains taboo, although some
clandestine home schools do exist. But what is the consequence of this reversal
in time?
A woman, who dared to defy Taliban orders, by
running a home school for girls, was shot and killed in front of her husband,
daughter and students. A woman who tried to flee the country with an unrelated
male, was stoned to death for adultery, and an elderly woman was brutally
beaten with a metal cable; finally breaking her leg, because she accidentally
showed her ankle from underneath her Burka. Many women, who are actually
housebound, have attempted suicide, and according to a Physicians human rights
pole, 97% of women suffer from depression. They cannot go shopping unless
attended by a close male relative, so even the most mundane domestic duties are
very difficult, in this fundamentalist, male dominated, society. In the report
from the US Bureau for Democracy, and Human rights, it states -
‘Traditionally, Sunni Islam of the Hanafi School
of jurisprudence has been the dominant religion. The Taliban also adheres to
the Hanafi School, making it the dominant religion in the country. For the last
200 years Sunnis have often looked to the example of the Deoband Madrassa -
religious school - near Delhi in India. Most of the Taliban leadership attended
Deobandi-influenced seminaries in Pakistan. The Deoband School has long sought
to purify Islam by discarding supposedly un-Islamic accretions to the faith and
re-emphasising the models established in the Koran, and the customary practices
of the prophet Mohammed. Additionally, Deobandi scholars have often opposed
what they perceive as western influences. Much of the population adheres to
Deobandi influenced Hanafi Sunnism, but a sizeable minority adheres to a more
mystical version, generally known as Sufism. Sufism centres on orders or
brotherhoods that follow charismatic religious leaders.’ It continues -
‘In the past, small communities of Hindus,
Sikhs, Jews and Christians lived in Afghanistan, but most members of these
communities have left. Evan at their peak, these non-Muslim minorities
constituted only one percent of the population. Almost all members of this
countries small Hindu and Sikh population - which once numbered 50,000 people -
have emigrated or taken refuge abroad.......... The very few Christians and Jews,
who live in the country, are almost all foreigners, who are assigned
temporarily to relief work by foreign NGO’s. There were press reports in June 1999
that the last known Afghan Rabbi, was detained in Kabul by the Taliban, and only
released after several days.’
‘Women in Afghanistan enjoyed relative freedom
until about 1996, before the darkness descended, and they were able work as
they pleased, to dress as they wished, to drive, and to appear in public alone.
Within reason Afghan women were at the time on a par with those in most of
South Eastern Europe. In Bulgaria which one might almost term a matriarchal
society, the plight of the Afghan woman must be perceived as pure anathema.
South Eastern Europe, with all its shortcomings and confusion, especially in
the aftermath of the Kosovo crisis, must at least concede that religious dogma
has its footprint on this land. How often has one heard the term ‘Turkish
Yoke;’ blame sitting without doubt on the shoulders of historic Muslim
invaders. Or, in the case of Kosovo, who can doubt the calumny of ethnic
cleansing, carried out in the name of nationalism, but in reality tinged with
the wicked overtones of Christian fundamentalism.’
In an, Email which has now generated into a worldwide
deluge of human indignation, an Australian Architect called John Hyland was
concerned enough to send the writers colleague in London a synopsis of the
plight of women in Afghanistan. In its edited form the last paragraph is
redolent of all our feelings, and sums up the whole issue –
‘Everyone has a right to a tolerable
human existence, even if they are women in a Muslim country. If we can threaten
military force in Kosovo in the name of human rights, for the sake of the
ethnic Albanians, citizens of the world can certainly express peaceful outrage
at the oppression, murder and injustice committed against women by the Taliban.
Should you wish to make you feelings known, and to support this international
outrage then the following Email address is available to you.’ Patrick.Brigham@gmail.com www.patrickbrigham.co.uk
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