No Women in the Taliban 33

News like this chill me to the bone. As I read comment after comment, essay after essay writing about what's happening in Afghanistan, my heart breaks for the country's women and girls. Our sheltered reality isn't someone else's privilege. 

Women in another part of the world live without dreams or hopes. They live in times of war and have never stepped out from the shadows of oppression. What happens in, and to Afghanistan, can and will happen in another country. 

How can one gender dominate like we're back in the Dark Ages? How can the values and positive outcomes of education for women be buried with a snap of a religion's fingers? How can one brand of religion dictate societal and living norms and have an entire nation live in fear and worry? It's inconceivable to me, but it's happening now, in 2021. 

I'm not sure they should use the term 'Islamic government' so broadly. There're a few forms of Islamic government and not all are hardline. It's unsettling. It instills suspicion, fear and distrust in those who aren't part of any branch of Islam. It isn't just the Taliban. Any religion can take up arms, take over a government and install their right to religious rule. Sudarsan Raghavan wrote a piece in The Washington Post on September 23, 2021, titled 'As the Taliban bars some girls from school, their mothers’ dreams are also shattered',

They learned they can no longer attend secondary school, like countless other Afghan girls. The Taliban decreed that only boys could return to grades seven to 12 this week. It was another indicator of a bleak new future for women and girls in Afghanistan, where educational and other freedoms they’ve embraced for the past two decades are being systematically dismantled.

The country used to be called the 'Islamic Republic of Afghanistan'. Now, it's the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. That's a enormous difference. A religious leader (or an emir) rules. He is the authority and governance in the country. He leads 32 other men in government.   

His governance is based on the Taliban's ultra specific interpretation of Sunni Islam of the Hanafi and Deobandi School. This impacts all sorts of things in daily life from banking, to how people should dress, how they should behave, and especially the segregation of men and women in public spaces. 

Discussion of gender and diversity is likely punishable by death or having your tongues cut off. There isn't an equal distribution of labor in the workforce or at home. Women are nothing in a man's world. They are subjects and have no basic rights. Gender inclusivity in the Taliban will... take another generation to discern any sort of progress. 

While activists for women rights in mainly Kabul exist and remain currently active, I highly doubt that they will find middle ground with the Taliban. They would be in danger once the international media spotlight moves on from them. These activists might simply... disappear. 

In a piece published in The Washington Post on September 18, 2021, and picked up by other newspapers and media outlets, Kathy Gannon from Associated Press (AP) writes, 'Taliban replace ministry for women with 'virtue' authorities', 

In Kabul, a new sign was up outside the women’s affairs ministry, announcing it was now the “Ministry for Preaching and Guidance and the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.” 

Staff of the World Bank’s $100 million Women’s Economic Empowerment and Rural Development Program, which was run out of the Women’s Affairs Ministry, were escorted off the grounds, said program member Sharif Akhtar, who was among those being removed. 

Wow, just wow. Try naming a 'Ministry for Preaching and Guidance and the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice' in Singapore. It might fly. Who knows. I believe right-wingers (of any religion) and maybe Focus on Family members will celebrate too. And this lovely specific virtuous Ministry in Kabul will be run by all men who will decide on women matters. 

Also, don't forget how much influence the religious officers have in Malaysia too. The Jabatan Agama Islam Wilayah Persekutuan (Federal Territories Islamic Religious Department, also JAWI) takes great pleasure in enforcing religious laws, and raiding citizens' homes for any reason on any tip-off. Amidst many scandals, complaints and clownish acts, by law, all Malays are Muslims. 

News headlines across the world screamed the pain of Afghanistan's women ministry being replaced with an all-male dominant vice and virtue ministry. Those words, VICE and VIRTUE, are creepy af. Spine-chilling. Nobody could write a better horror novel than what's about to to unfold. Honor killing, genital mutilation, and whatever else horrific rules and practices that powerful males could come up with to strip women of their pride, rights to emotions and an opinion. 

A leopard never changes its spots. History is doomed to repeat itself. UNESCO and the UN have no clout and no influence in '33 All Stars' Taliban-led Afghanistan. Any woman's life is constantly in danger in that country, and as a society, it's a terrifying norm and not an ideal to aspire to. Yes, uttered by yours truly not in favor of a religious government.