Does a Taliban Spokesman dare to face and debate with today’s Afghan women on the matters of compulsory Hijab with reference to Holy Book content? Women’s rights activists question the Taliban.
Women activists have recently launched a large-scale “No to Compulsory Hijab” campaign. In this campaign, women challenge the Taliban’s decision by publishing video messages, saying no to “compulsory hijab” and “burqa.” They reject the Taliban’s decision, using and referencing human rights and religious principles, and oppose the Taliban’s decision.
Taiba Soleimani, one of the women, says that in a country where people are dying of poverty and parents are selling their children to poverty and survive for some more days, the illegitimate ruling group is fighting women and have taken the basic human rights into their hostage instead of fighting poverty and investing resources on enabling the environment for an inclusive government. According to her, the detention of protesting girls, the closure of girls’ schools and the issuance of orders to make the burqa and hijab mandatory are evidence of the Taliban’s determination to fighting women. However, she emphasizes that women say “no” to the baseless obligatory argument on matters hijab and will not bow to the “oppression of the group ruling the country by the power of weapon.”
Addressing Anas Haqqani, a Taliban member, Ms. Jalalzai, another female protester, said that wearing “Burqa” is neither a Pashtun custom nor not part of Afghanistan’s culture. According to her, the Taliban are committing a great crime against humanity by imposing systematic restrictions on women. According to Jalalzai, the Taliban’s practice of oppressing women is “cowardice” in Pashtun culture. However, she calls on Taliban to invest resources and energy on taking the country out of the current chaos and crises, which is the result of their twenty years of baseless fights against Kabul government. Imposing baseless restrictions and fighting against women’s rights solve nothing but shortens the age of Taliban’s illegitimate government.
During a meeting on Saturday, the Taliban’s Ministry of Virtue Promotion announced the Taliban’s supreme leader’s decree on “Burqa” as compulsory hijab, stressing that wearing the hijab is an “obligation and necessity” for adult women.
In reacting to the Taliban’s decision, Women’s Rights Activist Arefa Fatemi emphasized that women are human and free, saying that women in the society have the right to choose their own clothing. By saying “no to compulsory hijab,” she emphasizes that the imposing compulsory hijab is a violation of women’s rights and the systematic commission of crime and insecurity against women.
She has further questioned that what is wrong with the current dressing of women? The current dressing of Afghan women is far more Islamic than most of the Islamic countries from where this religion initiates and roots.
Razia Barakzai, another female protester, accuses the Taliban of focusing more on restricting women since regaining control of Afghanistan. The closure of girls’ schools, threats, arrests, humiliation, insults, hostage-taking, and the disappearance of protesting women and girls are some of the cases that Razia Barakzai cites as restrictive behavior by the Taliban. According to her, the Taliban approach and way of interacting with women indicates that this terrorist group is “naturally and fundamentally” opposed to the activities and presence of women in society. Razia adds that as a member of Afghan society, she gives herself the right to wear whatever she wants as long as her dressing is decent and aligned with the custom and values of religion. She emphasizes that women are wiser in defining “hijab” than the rulers who, in a complex and tasteful way, cut the hijab under the pretext of religion and value, rule and law, and sell it to the people.
Women in video clips recorded for the “No to Compulsory Hijab” campaign say that the issue of Afghanistan is broader than investing resources for fighting against human and women’s rights. Insecurity and unemployment are the challenges that have hampered the normal flow of life in Afghanistan. According to these women, the hijab that the Taliban have define is neither “cultural not religious.”
Other protestors have said that there is no need for decisions and choices to cover women and that the Taliban cannot impose the “Burqa” on them as a cover. A member of the “No to Compulsory Hijab” campaigners says that the Taliban does not have the right to deprive women of all individual and social rights under the pretext of wearing the hijab.
Another member of the campaigners said that Afghan women wear the hijab but do not have food. According to the protesting women, those who call themselves “undisputed rulers” must work to solve the people’s economic problems instead of fighting the women.
One member of the campaigners says she will never accept the type of hijab introduced by the Taliban.
Some have warned that if the Taliban continue to impose restrictions, women appear in public in men’s clothing, but will not accept and surrender to such a humiliation that is against the human values and moral.
Another woman, calling the Taliban an illegitimate cruel terrorist rulers emphasize that Afghan women would not never accept and surrender to anti-feminist orders that have no religious base and argument.
Women say the Taliban’s “head-to-toe hijab” is an excuse to deny the rights of 50% population of Afghan society, and the Taliban has no right to deny women’s rights.
The protesting women have called on the international community to take practical actions against such decrees instead of issuing non-practical statement and condemnation.
The Taliban’s mandatory hijab plan for women in government offices also warns that they will be fired if they do not wear the hijab. To implement and deal with the families of women who do not comply with this decree, four steps have been considered: First, the address of the woman found guilty of violating the decree would be identified to physically meet the male guardian of the family and explain the decree. Second, the head of the family who is a male guardian would be summoned. Third, he would be imprisoned for three days and fourth, the guardian of the woman would be punished and tortured according to the Sharia law.
Huda Khamoush, a member of the protesting women’s movement, says the Taliban have killed people under the “slogan of general amnesty”. After seizing the power in Afghanistan and are now building their government on “eliminating women from public spheres”. According to her, there has been no change in the Taliban’s behavior and mentality, and they are still imposing the same restrictions on women as they did in the 1990s.
Since Taliban have regained power after 20 years of fighting against the Kabul regime, the group’s representatives in the international sphere have tried to portray a civilized and tolerable picture of them, but behind the screen, the ground realities are very different and out of the tolerance.
It is for more than eight months that the terrorist group has closed the education doors to girls and have imposed several restrictive decrees on women that have not only limited public participations and exposures of the women, but have caused several women to quite their jobs and remain locked in their house.
Since the group has returned to Kabul, a single effort towards betterment of the system and to take the country out of the chaos and crises is not done. Their main focus has been on strategies and policies that are not only applicable in today’s era, but create more problems in the society.
Revenge killing, detention, torture, and apposing the human society’s practical values have been the main activities that Taliban rebels have been busy with for the last eight months of their illegitimate weapon oriented governance.
Based on the report published by the New York Times, Taliban have killed more than 500 former movement affiliates across the country. The figure was published a month ago before the clashes escalation in the northern provinces of the country. Given the current fierce clashes going in different parts of the country, the figure has for sure tripled.
