The erasure of the woman
Afghan women at a market (Photo: David Mark, via Pixabay)
Public flogging. Forbidden from accessing education. Not allowed to work. Very limited freedom of movement. No right to vote or to any political participation at all. Maximum gender segregation. Very near total erasure of any female identity.
To us, these conditions may seem inconceivable. But for the 14.2 million women living in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime, they are very real.
Following the Taliban takeover in August 2021 after the withdrawal of NATO and American forces, the Taliban immediately got to work on making sure that Afghan women were gradually and systemically erased from the public sphere, or from any eye at all.
Practically all aspects of public life have been declared off limits to women. They are not allowed to enter parks, funfairs, sports centres, even female-only public baths. Women appearing on television must wear a face mask. All women must cover their entire body and face when out in public. Girls were banned from secondary schools in March of last year, and last December, the Taliban announced that public and private universities were being closed to all female students until further notice.
This is the worst current example of gender persecution in the world. Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is the only country where girls are banned from school because of their gender. Women cannot even travel by road if they are not accompanied by a male relative. They have even banned women from working for NGOs, which means that, in fact, a number of vulnerable Afghans are suffering under these laws, and not just women.
It is unthinkable for any other woman in the world to think of living in this situation. Imagine a society where practically every human right has been stripped from you, where you have no freedom to protest, or speak up against the fact that a small group of men are controlling and making your life a living nightmare. How can this be?
Everyone knows that a society cannot function normally without women. Life itself does not exist without women. And yet, the Taliban regime is trying desperately to prove that it can, and indeed will.
Under the Taliban regime, women are struggling to survive. Some families do not have a male member, so they cannot even feed themselves, given that they’re barred from employment. This is more evidence of the Taliban regime trying to dissolve any and all female family or social units.
How have Afghan women reacted to these brutal laws? For some, they have been forced to flee the country, to Peshawar, Pakistan, who are currently hosting around 1.4 million Afghan refugees. For others, this has meant taking to the streets to protest. Throughout 2022, groups of women’s rights activists staged parades and processions in Kabul, demanding change. But the Taliban did not want to hear any input from women about their own lives. Security forces arrested, violently dispersed and at times, even tortured the participants.
It’s not just adult women who are the main focus of this persecution. In May 2022, a new rule introduced meant that girls as young as 13 years old can now be given in marriage to a man of any age. Young girls are being wedded off, helpless, scared and alone. Reduced to nothing more than a voiceless object, there is absolutely nothing they can do about it. It’s sickening to imagine such exploitation and suffering even as a concept, let alone its being authorised by state law.
It almost seems like a dystopia. Whilst we go about our daily lives, women in Afghanistan are scared to simply wear bright colours in public, for fear of brutal punishment. No self-expression is tolerated, and all signs of female identity are repressed or hidden. The face of Afghan society is without question uniquely male, and one that does not tolerate any resistance.
It’s clear to see that what the Taliban want is for the woman to disappear, essentially. They’ve made sure that she’s not welcome in public spaces, she’s not allowed to have any sort of voice and that essentially, she is confined to the domestic sphere and nowhere else. They have blatantly ignored all condemnation from all human rights activists and groups, and organisations such as the UN.
It’s hard to know what to do, or how to fight back. Those who protest are immediately silenced. Those who flee the country can’t return. International efforts to help or negotiate have been thwarted and ignored by the Taliban. They have total control over the woman, and it’s heart-breaking to see so many women being forced into submission for fear of their lives.
Every person in the world, not just women, should stand up and take notice of this situation. We cannot allow ourselves to blindly carry on and allow the Taliban to make women disappear completely. As an international community, it is our duty to fight for the oppressed, and there is no more pressing example of oppression than women’s lives in Afghanistan right now.