Today’s existence of the daughters of Afghanistan is similar to the situation of ‘the Daughters of Kobani’ in the last one decade. They were facing ISIS fighters and the danger of being enslaved, and Afghanistan’s women are facing the Taliban, another type of ISIS. ISIS fighters used to arrest the girls of opposing social groups and enslave them for sexual exploitation, but the Taliban keep Afghan girls deprived of education and work to make it easier to enslave them. The underlying logic behind both extremist groups is similar: an unequal approach to women and considering them incomplete in terms of human dignity.
The Daughters of Kobani had witnessed how Yazidi girls were being sold in the slave markets and knew that surrendering to ISIS means surrendering to sexual slavery against the lustful extremists who wanted to get a countless number of worldly slaves in this world before going to heaven.
Arguably, in all the conquests and campaigns of the ancient world, over several thousand years, the desire to obtain sex slaves was one of the strong motivations of the warriors who fought in the footsteps of the conquerors. In the commentaries on the verses of Surah At-Tawbah of the holy book, it is stated that a number of newly converted Arabs used to say during the Battle of Tabuk that if they went to fight the Roman army, they would show weakness in front of the girls of “Bani al-Asfar” tribe (Byzantine), i.e. the white girls of the Romans. ISIS and the Taliban are examples of this sexual thirst in today’s world, which consider women as a commodity that can be bought and sold, not as their human counterpart.
The Daughters of Kobani had no more than two options in the face of the most brutal extremists that had emerged as of yet – either to surrender or to fight and accept the risk of death. They chose the second option and took up arms side by side with men, formed combat battalions, received military training and went against ISIS with an iron will. The world was stunned, as the stereotype of the submissive, downtrodden oriental woman was shattered. Now, girls from the east had entered the battlefields with a weapon on their shoulders with unparalleled courage, they strengthened the trenches in front of their bloodthirsty enemies, and they destroyed the Daesh attackers who entered the field with the wishes of the Bani Al-Asfar (Byzantine) girls, one after the other. They were able to be a shelter for thousands of girls who were trapped or captured by ISIS and were now looking for a way to escape. The world learnt that freedom and pride are not only of men, and girls are not divided into eastern and western in terms of courage and dignity, but anyone in any geography can stand up to defend their dignity and honor. Finally, ISIS was defeated by Kobani girls and they won.
Women in Afghanistan are also realizing their abilities more and more, day by day. They face the Taliban with empty hands and have realized that surrendering and giving up their rights has no consequences other than becoming a sex slave. They know that there is a risk of arrest, torture and death, but they also know that a humiliating and slave-like life is not worth living. Just as books were written about the battle of the daughters of Kobani and films were released, books will be written about the struggle of Afghan women against the most brutal, dark-minded movements of this century and they will add another page to the golden history of freedom. Let the UN continue to condemn, without taking any practical action against the Taliban, and let its deputy in Kabul lobby for the Taliban.