I am a girl of the 2000s and have seen the achievements of democracy in Afghanistan over the past two decades. Afghans were not living in a well-off situation; they were not in the worst situation either. The democratic system in Afghanistan was beneficial in many terms: freedom of speech, women’s freedom, women’s right to study and work in the army or media, administrative system, and elsewhere was possible; women had the right to have a national passport or go to travel and do sports. Everything was possible there for women. Unfortunately, after the Taliban’s return to power on 15th August 2021, the social situation of Afghanistan went backward to the medieval centuries. Later, the Taliban chanted fake slogans, saying that they have secured people, but let’s ask, first and foremost, what does security mean?
Security is not something like whether ISIS chops your head off your body; It is not secure when you are not afraid of being bombed at midnight. Insecurity means when the U.S dollar currency is always unstable in the Afghan markets; insecurity is when you have no idea whether you are safe at work or not; insecurity is when you eat a meal and are unsure of its healthiness; insecurity means when you feel that the car you have parked and the house you are living is going to be robbed or stolen; Insecurity means that you cannot travel in the fearing losing your savings; insecurity means when you get stressed when there is a guest and your home and you are afraid of spending your savings; finally, insecurity means being afraid of putting a profile picture on your social media accounts. Today, in Afghanistan, insecurity means when you are deprived of education; the new restrictions imposed by the Taliban on afghan women have turned into a huge, historical, and political discourse all over the world as well as in Afghanistan.
Even Islam has underestimated the rights of women over men. I think that was not enough as the Taliban, with little education of Islam, endangered and added to the distorted perception of women in Islam. For example, when you are a Muslim, especially a woman, you cannot memorize the holy Quran. It is not even acceptable in Islam for a woman to recite the Adan and call upon people to do prayer in masjids (mosques)! A female Muslim is prohibited to stand before men and guide the prayer. In other words, a female Muslim is not allowed to recite the Adan or stand in front of men during prayers. If a Muslim woman studies theology, she will never be accepted as a cleric or a religious source of imitation; even if women study up to a doctoral degree, she will not be able to work if her husband does not want her to. Why? Because women in Afghanistan are considered second-sex, and it depends on their husbands’ decision whether they should go to work; sadly, today, the decision is up to the Taliban leaders to decide whether women have the right to work or educate themselves.
Afghan women did not have a suitable place in the past either; when women decided to have a national passport, they have to have the permission of their husbands first; also, it was up to husbands when to fulfill their wives’ sexual desires. If a woman did not agree to have intercourse, the husband had the right to divorce the wife after accusing her of disobedience. Generally, women go through nine months of pregnancy; she listens to their unborn infant’s heartbeats for nine months, but, after the birth, the child’s rights belong to the father, who is called the real caretaker of the child. After the father dies, the child’s caretaking responsibilities are handed over to the grandfather, not the mother who gave birth to the child.
Moreover, from the perspective of Islamic inheritance rules, the portion that a woman gets is equal to half of a man. Why? Just because she was born a woman!
Now you might have really noticed that Islamic rules were actually written for the subjugation of women. Yet, we never asked ourselves any historical question, although we know that there exists gender inequality between men and women in Islam; we only depended on the equality for education between men and women in Islam. We were happy that at least we were able to pursue education, but the Taliban later misinterpreted the Islamic ayahs and misrepresented them in order to restrict women’s life in Afghanistan; they even stole the fundamental right of women to education.
We have read in religious schools that a woman’s testimony in court is worth half of a man’s testimony, which is why, according to the Taliban perspective, a woman is a creature of flawed intellect, and hence her testimony is not given importance in any case. If women file for divorce due to family violence, they have to provide in-court evidence and witnesses to testify on the husband’s misbehavior at the house. Finally, even if these women win the case, they have to forget about their dowry to convince the husband to agree to divorce. On the contrary, if the husband changes his mind to divorce his wife, he can easily do it whenever he wishes to.
Such problems have mostly happened in the villages of Afghanistan. For instance, when a husband sees his wife with a stranger man in the market, he judges her before considering the situation and applies the law that has permitted him to do so, which means he has the right to kill his wife. So, when a woman sees her husband with a stranger woman, she will have no right to object, because the (Islamic) law permits a man to have four wives at the same time. That way, the women always have to suffer any sort of cruelty imposed by their husbands without saying a word.
These are just some examples of a misogynistic society. These problems were not created by the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan. In the past year and a half, however, these cases have been aggravated and misrepresented. None of the bad and negative characters in the fictional stories and films have shown an ugly reaction toward the Taliban’s behavior. The Taliban’s behaviors are beyond the imagination of screenwriters and storytellers of course.
How long do the Taliban think they will last after all this bloodshed and discrimination? How long will all these cruelties and oppressions endure? What we do know is that the darkest moments of the night come just before dawn. This is what the law of nature is about, and it will happen soon.