July 01, 2022

Afghan women face an unprecedented level of misogyny

topic:	Women's rights
located:	Afghanistan
editor:	Shadi Khan Saif

"Women and girls in Afghanistan are faced with an unprecedented level of misogyny on the global level," said a top UN observer in Geneva as the Taliban was holding a grand, all-male meeting in Kabul about the fate of the war-ravaged country. On the same day, the US softened its stance towards the Taliban by engaging with its foreign minister in Doha just as China and Russia expressed readiness and willingness to bolster ties with the de facto authorities in Afghanistan.

What does this all signify if we connect the dots from the rise to power of the Taliban following negotiations with the US, the marginalisation of the women and girls under their rule and then the crippling sanctions and freeze of Afghanistan’s state assets by Washington?

There is no harm in political engagement with the Taliban as long as there is no compromise on the basic human rights of the citizens; but why opt for this option only when there is an eminent strategic challenge from the rival global powers? 

Why was diplomacy not chosen over the use of force in the first place during the years of war resulting in the loss of so many lives, fortune and above all precious time that could have been used for the betterment of the Afghans and the world instead of deaths and destruction?

It is the sad reality of the world we all are living in, where might is right and the use of force instead of dialogue is increasingly becoming the norm. 

Just like the basic law of physics, the Taliban are now justifying their oppressive policies as a reaction to the force used against them during the past 20 years. Under such circumstances, women and girls are suffering the most.  They have been dragged back to the dark era of the past with astonishing ease despite years of efforts aimed at nurturing women’s rights in Afghan society.

Sadly, any internal resistance or even foreign pressure on them for the sake of women’s rights is proving futile because they are presenting them as victims of the 20 years of oppression and ongoing US sanctions instead of being a responsible authority accountable to the public and the world.

Despite being late and actually motivated by strategic reasons, the political engagement by the world with the de facto rulers in Afghanistan, the Taliban, is the right way to proceed. The group must be held accountable for its every move.

As the rights and liberties of Afghan women hang in the balance, the US and the rest of the international community, even if they don’t care about the Afghan people, must have learned lessons from history that abandoning Afghanistan with its strategic location and mineral wealth would only do more harm than good to securing international peace.

Photo by Wanman Uthmaniyyah

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