To be shocked this isn't getting more coverage?

What I would love to see is the same people marching ‘for Palestine’ coming out in force and marching against the Taliban and for women’s rights to education.

This would really make me respect them more.

A good example of misinformation slyly slipped in with the hope no one Jewish will notice and everyone else will believe it.

Look at this heartbreaking video showing the actual traditional dress of countries including Afghanistan:

This. People didn't want to stay indefinitely and given it's the children of those in the electorate dying it's not unsurprising it became unpopular. I mean would anyone here volunteer for their dc to go in or go in themselves?

There also seems to be a reluctance to acknowledge how dangerous the regime based on their beliefs is and looking to the west for blame. It really is as extreme and oppressive system and regime.

Erm, well one of my closest male friends is Muslim. He has daughters and he is determined that they won't be brought up with the expectations his sisters and mother etc had of them.

Even down to not wanting them to live with their mother is laws when they marry. He wants them to experience the full freedoms that all women should enjoy - education, careers, financial independence, to dress how they wish (no expectations of hijabs etc).

And he is not alone. His friends feel similarly.

There's just been a long discussion about this on Times Radio. Everyone was in agreement that nothing can be done. Very depressing. I've donated to the Linda Norgrove Foundation charity but it seems such a tiny gesture.

Yeah, because the Taliban rulers will listen to protectors outside of the London embassy .

Afghanistan is not the UK, the west spend nearly 20 years trying to improve/change it and achieved nothing.

Biden pulled us all out, and I hope we never go back. My husband has served over there and I lived in fear each time.

Are you seriously suggesting that all Muslim men prevent women from studying and having a career??

I think the west (especially US and UK) are ashamed about what happened in Afghanistan, and so we should be.

But what can we do? It is a dirt poor country, so sanctioning it would just lead to starvation (and mostly of women, as the Taliban would grab the food), and we can hardly invade again. We know where that leads.

I do think we have double standards in the UK as regards Islam. Yes, the majority of Muslims are decent, law abiding citizens, but many are sexist still and they don’t condemn extreme Islam hard enough.

We need, like France, to take a much stronger line on treating all uk citizens the same, both with regards to rights and sanctions.

@Sugarcoldturkey it certainly isn't racist and it takes guts to openly swim against the media class- guts which I don't have, by the way!!
so much easier just to ignore or even become an apologist- like some of the posters on here
hell, I've even seen prominent feminists defend the burka (pure cowardice)
those posters who are apologising would be bending over backwards to berate any white, working class parent who appeared to treat their boys more favourably than their girls
holding a different religion and culture to lower standards than we would ourselves is actually incredibly patronising and kinda racist when you think about it- how ironic

I@Sugarcoldturkeywhen I read it I was horrified and also noted it wasn't being discussed.

I think that there's really nothing outsiders can do except donate and raise awareness, when it comes to change for the country. Everything done seems to end up with the Taliban gaining strength and human lives lost. All those wars and here we are.

Aid is important but I don't see it being able to address this issue.

Everything that you’ve said about Jewish women is either inaccurate or plain wrong, FYI.

Of course we don't want those awful views to be spread but we also don't want to be alarmist and suggest that this is a 'Muslim problem' inciting islamophobia which the UK already has as seen recently in the UK.

It's sad to hear that girls are not allowed to go on school trips unlike the boys. What as a school are you doing about that?

The majority of our local refugees are Afghan women. This is a big part of the refugee crisis.

Bump. Everyone on MN needs to read this.

Of course people are appalled, but exactly what do you think we can do about it?

I don’t think the Taliban are going to take much notice of mass demonstrations in Trafalgar Square.

I saw this and thought the same thing. Apparently a female voice is a vice!!! Unbelievable. Dire news in 2024.

Is it unreasonable to be shocked that there's not much coverage of this? - of course not, but sadly most people in the UK don't care about anything that doesn't directly concern them. They've swallowed the anti-foreigner rhetoric that a very large part of UK politics has descended into. If it's happening half-way around the world in someplace ending in -stan, they just don't GAS.

We have an appalling standard of international news coverage in the UK now. If it's not happening in or to a country that has English as a first language, it's not considered newsworthy by the public or the media. You only get any real international news coverage on the Channel 4 evening news now - and even that tends to be over-focussed and thematic.

I come from a small EU country where men tend to be a bit chauvnistic sometimes. My father did all his best possible to educate me and give me a chance to earn my own money, to want a career and be an equal earner, all this being Christian.

now, come and tell me this about your muslim men.

Exactly this

Of course it's heartbreaking, but it's what too many Afghan males wanted and continue to want, which is largely why the Taliban swept back in so quickly

Nobody pretends the way our forces left was ideal, but the result would probably have been the same no matter what we'd done, and unless we're prepared to return to the colonialist approach of running others' countries we just have to accept that they won't always govern themselves in a way the west cconsiders appropriate

Brilliant piece by David Greig - Miniskirts of Kabul,

Agree. It feels like everyone has just given up, It's so upsetting.

Can't talk in public, can't read in public, can't so much as glance at a man in public unless he's a relative. And we know full well that those in charge would run the world like this if they had a chance. It's horrific.

eff rubish. Jesus was the first Man to give voice to women and historically christians are the only ones who did anything for the less privileged.