Women under Taliban

– Preeti Malik & Asra Mali

यत्र नार्यस्तु पूज्यन्ते रमन्ते तत्र देवताः।

यत्रैतास्तु न पूज्यन्ते सर्वास्तत्राफला क्रिया:॥

We are sure that you have read this mantra numerous times? In your schools, at your homes, at your working places. But, how well do you comprehend this? This was not made to memorize, but rather to follow. And the Taliban is finding it hard to understand. 

Years back in Kalyug, Mahishasur got the boon from Brahma that he can’t be killed by any man or god. He attacked the goddess along with an army of Asuras but Durga immediately created a huge troop of soldiers from her breath to fight back. The battle raged for nine days. Finally, the goddess killed him, thus, freeing the world from Mahishasur’s tyranny. Feels like Mahishasur is back in form of the Taliban – women are their possession to be treater inhumanely. 

This blog is going to be unnerving for feminists. But change can happen when we acknowledge the crisis. 

The emergence of Halting Circumstances 

After acquiring Kabul in mid-August 2021, as the Taliban took over Afghanistan, the fear of losing independence began frightening women in Afghanistan. Initially, the political leaders of the Taliban proclaimed that women shall be getting educational and employment rights. But, this is far from reality. Taliban policies of barring women from working outside, and restricting women to their homes gives a fact check. Women in Afghanistan were threatened to wear the burqa at all times in public because according to one Taliban spokesman, “the face of a woman is a source of corruption” for men not connected to them. In systematic segregation sometimes referred to as gender apartheid, women are not allowed to work, they are not allowed to be educated after the age of eight, and until then are permitted only to study the Qur’an. 

The ministry ruthlessly executed restrictions on women in Afghanistan through public beatings and imprisonment. They beat women publicly for, among other things, wearing socks that were not satisfactorily opaque; showing their wrists, hands, or ankles; and not being accompanied by a close male relative.

The yearning of women in Afghanistan

Women have been running a long awful race through the same notorious things through generations. This becomes shockingly nasty that the young women in Afghanistan who have once only heard about the ill rules and regulations of the Taliban would have to undergo the same. Let’s gaze into what might prevail in the psyche of women in Afghanistan.

The injuries they give me are violent  

Their so-called fair actions are blatant

They don’t allow me to breathe freely

I find their minds stupid and silly

My dreams are shattering 

My life is becoming dead

My sorrows and yearnings

The tears I shed

Brings no change to brutal souls

Making women’s life hell is their goal

It takes a big toll on an individual’s mental, physical, and psychological health to put up with the beatings, abuses, and false restrictions and struggle for them. The severity of the issue lies in the fact that no superpowers have got the gut to take instant action and destroy the devil. Women in Afghanistan die each moment, rise every day, and tussle within themselves in a hope that they would be the winners of the battle and the writers of their fate.

source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58537081

Situational solution 

The tyranny of the Taliban might be a product of religious extremism or something more entrenched in our society: patriarchy. The radical approach might not have had a way out because of its impressionable appeal and the long-existing oppression of women would have made the intensity of the situation seem a bit “normal”, or some would just be indifferent towards the condition of women in Afghanistan. 

Whichever line of thought it is, it hinders our progression as a collective social network because, even if in the 21st century, education and basic rights to human dignity and freedom are a distant dream, then it just tosses our “progressive world” a thousand years back.

must read – https://skchildrenfoundation.org/indias-first-female-freedom-fighter/