Women under Taliban rule
Ιn the summer of 2021, the world saw the return of the Taliban to Afghanistan. That fact has caused global terror with the country of Afghanistan being in complete collapse. After the departure of the President of Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan have surrendered to the mercy of the extremist Islamist Taliban. The Taliban movement has been repeatedly criticized by other governments as extreme, brutal, and extremist, especially in its application of Sharia to women.
Expected victims of the Taliban are thousands of women. According to the Taliban, women have no right to work and to participate in education. They are obliged to wear burqas and hide in their homes. When current women living in Afghanistan learned of the return of the Taliban, they were terrified and ran to hide their identities and degrees.
Muslims are followers of the Islamic religion. The Islamists believe in Allah, who dictated the Qur’an through Muhammad. The Qur’an is the holy book of Islamists and contains their beliefs. Islam is the official religion of Afghanistan, and every aspect of Muslim life is defined by the so-called “Sharia”. This is the Islamic law, contained in the Qur’an. Sharia is a code of life, and all Muslims are committed to abiding by it in their life. The Taliban translated Sharia in their own way and enforced strict rules restricting daily life and personal development
According to “Sharia”, every spouse is obliged to be attentive to and obedient to her husband, unless he wants something that is religiously forbidden. Women live in their husband’s houses. Without his permission, they cannot visit, nor have a free personal life. The wife is obliged to have a marital relationship with her husband. Unjustified denial of marital relations automatically gives the man the right to express expulsion of their marriage. The Qur’an allows men to punish women in cases of disobedience, non-performance of their duties, but also for reasons of character improvement.
Men in society are considered superior to women and the Taliban believe that men have the right to abuse women. Some inhuman and violent punishments are whipping, stoning, and poisoning. Some women have been known to take their own life by suicide because they are pressed psychologically and want to avoid being punished. The Taliban have the idea that the son is considered the pride of the family while the daughter is considered the “impotence” of men to have children. The boys in a family typically take on what their father does as their own career. When it comes to money, the family’s inheritance is given to the sons. On the other hand, girls may be given a small dowry so that they can get married easier and faster.
Women are forbidden to work, and they are allowed to move out of their house only accompanied by a male relative, therefore, they cannot live alone. The Taliban do not allow women to enter their balconies alone, because even that is considered an exit. The image of a woman is also censored. According to the Qur’an, women have to be dressed modestly. That means that they can not wear clothing that reveals the private body parts (Surat Al-‘A`raf [verses 26-38]), that imitates the opposite sex, or excessive clothing with silk and gold. Muslim women are required to wear burqas. According to the Taliban, however, women should be covered with clothing from top to toenails. Heels and painted nails are prohibited. Otherwise, they are punished. (Η Ένδυση από μια ισλαμική οπτική: New Muslim Guide)
Τhe position of women and children is very difficult in Muslim countries. Women are considered “slaves” submissive to one person, their husbands. Women are treated as “object”, which is exploited by their husbands, and can neither react nor can defend themselves. The response of “no” is not included in their daily life. The answer to their husbands has to be “indeed”, which women use to accept to do what their husbands tell them.
Human rights are being violated in every sense by the Taliban. These are the rights that everyone has without exception, due to the fact that they are human beings. Everyone has the status of a human being, which means that they belong to the community called humanity. Human rights are fundamental, inviolable, and absolute (no human being can be deprived), universal (available to all people on Earth), and indivisible and interconnected (all kinds of human rights are equal) (Unricgreece, 2019)
The rights and achievements of women, for whom they have worked and fought for more than 20 years, are ignored under Taliban rules. The man has the upper hand in everything and women are deprived of fundamental rights.
Education is an inalienable human right and is a key factor, decisive and catalytic for the course of life and evolution. It leads to knowledge, which is not limited. Education allows and promotes the discovery of notifying elements of the individuals of a society and contributes to the creative expression of these elements. The Taliban do not allow women to be educated, and even if they allow it, education will be done under certain conditions. Thus, the right to education does not exist in Afghanistan.
Everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security. Although in Afghanistan women live in slavery, in whole or in part. Slavery should be prohibited. No one shall be subjected to cruel, and inhuman punishment. Women are essentially slaves to men. They must obey them otherwise they will suffer the consequences.
Obviously, the right to freedom is trampled also. Women cannot have free opinions and expressions within society but also in their own families. The right not to be harmed, and the right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas is also lost by the domination of the Taliban. In addition, the right to work does not exist. That leads to the fact that women can not have the opportunity to have their own money and be independent.
Women live in injustice since the Taliban have taken over Afghanistan. They have no basic human rights left. Their lives depend on men literally. Many women with the return of the Taliban said they feared for their lives and the lives of their children. These are injustices that do not exist in a civilized society. It is difficult to understand the conditions under which these women live. Women in Afghanistan wake up and are always going to be viewed as what de Beauvoir calls the “Other” that it is dominated and depended on the “One”, the men. Men hold them and they get to differentiate themselves as better than the women simply through inherited and religious beliefs. Women are also what Spivak calls the “subaltern”. Because women can not speak up and even if they do their voices are not taken into account and men can not understand them.
Anneta Kyridou
11.9.2021. – AU21 COMPSTD
Citation :
Τι Είναι ο Ισλαμισμός Και Σε Τι Πιστεύουν Οι Μουσουλμάνοι;, from https://www.gotquestions.org/Greek/Greek-Islam.html.
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