To be shocked this isn't getting more coverage?

[Sugarcoldturkey]

Women in Afghanistan are now forbidden from speaking when not inside their homes. A simple "hello" to someone in a shop is now against the law. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/article/2024/aug/26/taliban-bar-on-afghan-women-speaking-in-public-un-afghanistan

AIBU to think this is some of the most horrific news I've heard in months? I can't wrap my head around it and I can't help thinking - activists/newspapers/politicians are loud when campaigning about the gender pay gap or the state of child care or a woman's rights to her own body but somehow on this topic no one wants to criticise too often or too loudly.

Is it because religion is mixed in? Or guilt over the war? Or do politicians in particular only care about women's rights when it's a vote-winner in their constituency? Or is it just that it's so terrible and we all feel so powerless to prevent it that we just prefer to ignore the situation?

I'm feeling v v shaken.

100%

Having concerns about Islam is considered a 'phobia'.

Why is there no 'phobia' of Christianity?

It has proven time and time that society within national borders does what it does and neither the USA nor the UK can do anything about it

are Iraq or Libya better off after being toppled? Same vacuums filled with same types of people

What's racist about it? Islam is not a race, it's an ideology.

'It is predicted' by whom?

It's awful. Even more so because when you cannot see or hear women at all, it makes it even easier to get away with murder, violence and sexual violance.

They have no voice at all left with which to cry out.

Oh please! Enough of the faux ignorance. You know exactly what that statement is alarmist and racist.

Fundamentalist Christianity and the LDS church are actively harming women in the United States and no one seems to be alarmed by white Christians.

Trump and Biden played a massive part in this. It was their stupid agreement (Promise you won’t let the Taliban back in control!)

The only massive part is that played by the Taliban when it comes to the treatment of women in Afghanistan. Iran has issues with women's rights also, as do several other middle eastern states of course.

Can women in Saudi Arabia not speak in public?

I'm honestly curious - do you think (so-called) Christian beliefs pose the same level and scope of danger to women worldwide as (so-called) Islamic beliefs?

I'm saying "so-called" because imo extremists are co-opting religion and twisting it into something it's not.

Edited to add: this is part of what I find so frustrating. If I say I find the treatment of women in Afghanistan (and Saudi Arabia etc) horrific then someone somehow claims it's racist to criticise only Muslim countries and the Christian ones also have problems. Yeah sure, but afaik Afghanistan is the only country where women are forbidden from speaking in public. Sticking up for women's rights is not racist

The Soviets certainly didn't 'try and drag Afghanistan out of 'their backward tribal culture'. That's ridiculous. Afghanistan was quite a progressive country until the Soviet invasion and then the Taliban managed to take over. If you google 'Afghanistan 1970s' you'll see photos of women in mini-skirts going to University.

It was shameful how the UK left Afghanistan, especially after encouraging so many to take on jobs and responsibilities which could put their lives at risk if the Taliban returned to power.

We arnt helping though we tried we didn't make it better we trained them told them to keep the taliban at bay themselves and they literally let them right back in seriously what was the point of fighting

They moved millions of pounds worth of weapons into the country and then walked away effectively arming the Taliban to the teeth. They had effective control of the cities, casualties were low, they could have stayed until a democratic government could be fully established.

White Christians are benign compared to Islam. Christianity is also a religion not a race. There are Christians of all races all over the world.

You are wrong.
Soviet Union had influence in Afghanistan since 1919 and provided it with military and economic assistance all this time so progressive attitudes were there during Soviet Union influence.

To counter Soviet Union, the US has started sponsoring mujahideen (Islamic extremists) to bait USSR to invade to fight them. Which they did (to disastrous consequences). Mujahideen then morphed into Taliban. The USA also sponsored Taliban proper. So it was the fault of the Western governments.

Quote: "The Taliban published a host of new “vice and virtue” laws last week, approved by their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which state that women must completely veil their bodies – including their faces – in thick clothing at all times in public to avoid leading men into temptation and vice."

Bloody hell, wouldn't it be easier to just make men wear blindfolds?

One of the main issues were that voters in the US no longer wanted to see anyone in their family killed in Afghanistan and didn't want to stay indefinitely

Pressure to end that kind of involvement will be heard domestically

Yes, I find it interesting how the reason given for women's oppression is basically "we men can't control ourselves". Truly bizarre.

Have you seen those pictures online from the 1970s of female uni students in Afghanistan, wearing mini skirts and sandals?

Heartbreaking juxtaposed with ones from this year of women fully garbed in black.

It's not accidental. They are sending the message to women that women should exist purely as they relate to men. They are letting the women know that they are being locked up and erased from society, that human rights no longer apply to them, for no other reason than their existence mildly inconveniencing men. It's a made up excuse calculated to let women know exactly where they stand.

Agree, but wasn't it trump who initiated that?

To be fair, the miniskirt pictures are of brave women who were bucking convention. It wasn't standard. Still, heartbreaking to see how quickly these women have had their lives destroyed.

I wish there was something that we can do. I'll donate what I can, but it doesn't feel like anything close to enough.

I feel the same way, OP. In fact, I've always felt the same way about Afghanistan: it's as if we allowed for a Hell on Earth, where we concentrate all the unthinkable evil to women. I think the same of other super rich and famous arab countries that have legal slavery but are very cool for soccer players and the likes of them VIP people...
Hell on Earth 💔

it doesn't fit the massive bias in the media
they're a bunch of cowards

It was Obama, "akshually".

@Zebedee999
Do you know anything about how women in traditional Jewish households are treated? All behind their religion eg no touching anyone during periods, sleeping on the floor, having to wear wigs etc.
@Blondiebeachbabe it is racist to imply the Muslim invasion is coming to the UK by 2050, by implication that their laws will come with them hence stoking the kind of ignorant racists mobs we have been on the streets of the UK in recent times.
@AInightingale I didn't state anything about Islam and race as I was stating that Blondies comments are racist and alarmist in reference to her thinking that UK will be overtaken by Muslims by 2050 not proven by any facts.