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.

People use religion as a shield to commit their atrocities.

I completely agree. Israel has to win.

I think terrorists like the taliban are a threat to all women and all Jews, too. They need to be stopped or punished. Why can't sanctions be applied - why are they allowed to play cricket?

It's terrifying and heartbreaking.

This has a tendency to sidestep the extreme belief system imo of the regime, if not others

It's even more dangerous for women and girls

Christians are not just white people. I've got so many Indian friends who are Christians and they are really religious, worse than their western counterparts.

It's horrific it should be front page news.

Who do you think creates the vacuum these regimes rise from? Who helps reinforce these political regimes, arms them, funds them before they inevitably become the out of control behemoth no power can wrestle? It’s naive to think the West doesn’t exploit, manipulate, and even install these regimes for their own benefit. It always backfires. Civilians and soldiers die. Stocks and shares rise from the dead. Anyone remember Halliburton? Their stocks doubled as troop deaths (Iraq in this case) doubled. It’s in the West’s interest to help maintain perpetual war. And not just the West. Our global economy depends on perpetual war. “It creates jobs!” 🙄🎉

I don’t think it’s helpful to cry ‘racism’ or even more irritating ‘you must watch GB news’. As someone said maybe we need to amend NAMALT to have M for Muslim but the reality is that majority Muslim countries have extremely poor records for women’s rights. That is a fact. Its not the case in majority Christian countries or majority any other religion countries. It may be extreme interpretations of the religion but its interpretations of Islam regardless. It’s not useful to pretend if the U.K. became a majority Muslim country that there would be no implications. Why think that the U.K. would then be different to any other Muslim majority country? Women in particular should be able to call out abuses in Islam toward women and inequalities in the religion. Silencing people by shouting ‘racism’ is not on.

Look at where women’s rights have gone in the western world when everyone silenced or tried to or succeeded in ‘cancelling’ the ‘bigots’ ‘nazis’ and ‘TERFs’ who spoke out.

we seem to be living in a childish world where anyone who doesn’t hold the ‘correct’ view is shouted down.

Nope, I don't watch GB news thanks.

You can dismiss people's concerns as much as you like, stay in that cool bubble of yours whilst women's rights are wheeled back throughout the world. You think it can't happen here? You think some men here won't be having wet dreams over what the Taliban are currently doing?

Yes, label me a thick racist if it makes you feel better, but I'm nearly 60 and I've predicted political and social shitshows many times before before and guess where we now find ourselves? Stay cool though 😎 😘

What would you like us to do? Send the forces in again and lose thousands of our own men and women? There is literally nothing we can do! We tried and we failed.

Of course there are many lovely Moslems who follow their faith closely. But for those who are comparing fundamental Christianity with fundamental Islam, may I point out that no Christian who decides to change their religion or become an atheist has been killed because of it. You can completely turn your back on your church, badmouth Christians and Jesus freely, tell everyone that you are gay but you'll still be able to live your life without fear for your physical safety. That's the huge difference between living in a democracy built on Christianity and what Hamas wants for the world. They are coming for Israel today, but don't be fooled - they won't want to stop there.

If a trillion dollars spent by the US over 20 years can't keep the Taliban out of power, I don't think there's much else we can do for Afghanistan. Certainly the UN isn't going to do anything. The Taliban literally only understand violence, which is why at their press conferences there are always several men with AK47s and rocket launchers standing behind the spokesman.

We can, however, call out misogyny at all levels when we see it, and in particular when it's closer to home. In particular, progressive soft-left people (with whom I identify) need to stop imagining (a) that there is a way to reconcile the traditional beliefs and practices of certain ethnic/religious groups with the rights of women and gay people, and (b) that to expect and indeed require those groups to tolerate said rights is somehow racist, xenophobic, or anything-else-phobic.

For what it's worth I think that situation is a bit better than it was a few years ago, but there is still quite a way to go.

Wow, that's a lot of words you put in my mouth there. None of which I actually said.

I think that this news story deserves to be read and understood by everyone, everywhere.
i really hope that this story remains in the active threads section so a lot of readers on here are aware of it.

Yup, like Christian faiths, many different kinds of worship within Jewish faith. Wigs, strict kosher, big hats, are the minority, but trending upwards.

Accusing me of being the sort of person who watches gb news? Oh I think I know what you were saying 😉

Many Afghan men supposedly "escaping the regime" ended up in Turkey - recently saw a Twitter video where one ahole says "I like Turkey but why is there no sharia law here, there should be, too many women around are naked". When Turkish people starting telling him to go back to his hell hole if he likes sharia so very much he shut up and walked away. It is chilling to think these people are walking around with this mentality while enjoying freedoms they criticise.

Absolute rubbish!

Afghanistan was a relatively liberal and modern country in the 60s and early 70s (pictures below), and while not perfect, wasn't anymore 'backward' than most of the world.

Who knows where Afghanistan and its people would be today if the West hadn't decided it would be a great idea to arm, train and fund the religous and conservative extremists to fight the Soviets on their behalf.

The Taliban are where they are today because we created them and then handed them control of the country not once, but twice.

In particular, progressive soft-left people (with whom I identify) need to stop imagining (a) that there is a way to reconcile the traditional beliefs and practices of certain ethnic/religious groups with the rights of women and gay people, and (b) that to expect and indeed require those groups to tolerate said rights is somehow racist, xenophobic, or anything-else-phobic
Agree. the naivete is off the scale. They will not all turn to Socialism if they threw off the shackles of Western oppression. The Taliban, Hamas etc are as far Right as they come, as are virtually all religious fundamentalists. Yet they are feted by the 'progressive ' left.

I find these pictures so heartbreaking. Imagine being one of these women, having come from that to where they are now. Unfathomable.

That is true of all of the Middle East, but short of inventing a time machine, all we can do is make sure we learn from those mistakes. But unfortunately that means leaving them to it, until hopefully enough people feel they have suffered enough and overthrow them. Islam was a hugely progressive religion even 500 years ago. Yet it is Muslims who have allowed it to be taken over by this ultra fundamentalist sect, worldwide.

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

There is a pecking order, or hierarchy of issues on the Left.

The top spot belongs to issues regarding trans people, at the moment at least.

The there's racism and Islamophobia.

Then there's women.

Anything that's seen as exacerbating racism, negative opinions on immigration or Islamophobia doesn't get covered very well.

Hence why the Guardian were total shitbags when it comes to their 'coverage' of what happened in Cologne years ago. They took a long time to report on it (I think they only did so about 2-3 days later), and even then what I saw were just apology pieces which went on the lines of -

'Yes, what happened is awful, BUT'

That 'but' was incredibly telling. It made it clear that women must put up with sexual assault, must be sympathetic to the plight of men who come from other countries where street assault or harassment is much more common, otherwise we are taking part in racism or hatred towards these communities.

Basically, shut up, be quiet and BE KIND.

Who do you think creates the vacuum these regimes rise from?

They don't need a vacuum, @SerenityNowInsanityLater; these kind of influences have been there for thousands of years among the tribal societies, and if it's not "the troops leaving" which encourages them it'll be something else

That said I do agree the west made mistakes while interfering, but at the time not to get involved wasn't consider acceptable either. It was all "We've got to destroy the Taliban and save the rest", with no real understanding of the cultures involved or even what a good solution might look like ... probably because, much as we'd like one, there isn't a good solution by western standards

@bringincrazyback I like Andrew Doyle. Unlike bearded bros on the Left, he hasn't thrown women under the bus.

And how would you propose that when women cant leave the house and speak?
Should we do the same about genocides and wars around the world, because it's not our business?