Stop Killing Afghan Protest in London(Image source: Unsplash)
After the withdrawal of the US Army from Afghanistan, the Taliban, an Islamist military organization, took over Afghanistan. This means that the Taliban became the official government of Afghanistan.
There are raising concerns over the Taliban’s rule. This concern is mainly due to the severe persecution faced by women. “The central goal of the terrorists is the brutal oppression of women — and not only the women of Afghanistan,” said former President George W. Bush when he signed the legislation related to Afghanistan women’s rights. Moreover, people are worried about the Taliban because of its past actions. Although the Taliban did not occupy the whole country before 2021, in the regions under its control, the Taliban banned women from going to school or having a job. The Taliban also forced them to follow Islamic fundamentalism. In the current situation, the women and girls are being forced to wear an all-covering burka, and the Taliban coerced them to marry its fighters. Furthermore, they are still not able to go to school.
The problem is that the Taliban became skilled at marketing. In the news from August 17th, 2021, Mr. Mujahid, an official spokesman for the Taliban, said that the Taliban is going to "allow women to work and study within our frameworks." However, as the BBC News reported, Mujahid did not “expand when asked about dress codes and what roles women would be able to have within the country's workforce.” This reflects that the Taliban will continue to persecute women, and the Taliban will only protect women’s rights “within the framework of Islamic law”
“They never really clarified what that means,” said Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on civil-military relations in South Asia. “The idea of thinking that the Taliban has changed is so incorrect,” she added.
However, some are viewing the Taliban’s rule as ineffective, and they assume that the Taliban will not be able to control the whole country for a long time. “Many of [Afghan people] are fleeing right now, and particularly those that have the opportunity are fleeing right now,” said Mona Tajali, an associate professor of international relations and women's studies at Agnes Scott College and an executive board member of Women Living Under Muslim Laws (WLUML). “But there’s just so many of them. That’s basically the main force that we’re thinking, ‘How will the Taliban try to repress at such an extensive level?’ I don’t know if it can.”
Despite these opinions, the future of the Taliban’s rule is uncertain. Thus, it is a global responsibility to protect Afghan women and girls from the Taliban’s oppression. According to BBC News, in the UK, more than £2,000 worth of goods were given to the Afghanistan refugees as a “message of welcome”. Also, more and more people are donating money to help Afghan people. They are also posting information related to the Taliban's persecution on social media.
Now, it is time for us to take action to protect the jeopardized women and girls in Afghanistan.
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