Why does the UN and other organisations not do anything about women in Afghanistan?

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i just don’t understand, how can it be okay to stop someone from having an education, from speaking, from going out . Why is nobody doing anything, is it because it’s in the name of religion?

It is really heartbreaking.
The UN does not have real action power, so they cannot do much in the field itself, isn't it?
Regarding military intervention.
Well, before US, Europe and Russia invaded Afghanistan, the life of women was much much much better than the present situation.
So, I really think the West should give up military intervention in other countries. It does not work. It actually makes the lives of civilians worst and just leads to misery and horror for them, while the West banks their resources.

Tbf the taliban use a mix of islam and pashtun culture so it is their culture unfortunately.

I think it’s all very well to say afghan women should fight back but they will be executed. It’s not the same as women agitating for their rights in the west. Women still had some sort of legal protections whilst they were agitating for more rights. No-one was likely to get stoned to death or whipped in public.

I’m with you OP, it breaks my heart. I’m not sure what anyone can do tbh.

The difference is though here we weren’t beheaded, stoned or shot by men who thought we were stepping out of line.

What others said. You cannot force change on a people who are so stuck in the past, the dark ages. It’s not to do with religion, it’s cultural. Go to the national memorial arboretum and you can see a list of British (and others) men and women who made the ultimate sacrifice to change Afghanistan, it failed. I do think any Afghan woman who manages to leave should be granted asylum

You cannot defeat ingrained belief, culture and values with an opposing one. It's also incredibly arrogant to assume that 'your ways' are better than 'their ways'.

(NB your and their relate to both sides of any conflict, seen from both sides).

The power of the Taliban is too strong. The moment Biden announced his bungled withdrawal of Afghanistan the Taliban brought back all their regressive laws and ideas.

I'm not saying the allies should have stayed in Afghanistan. It's my sincerest wish that the country does become even a little bit more progressive. I also want Afghan people to run their own country. But the Taliban has too much power and their culture is so ingrained, that I doubt things will change there. This has been the way of life for millennia, do you think some lefty thinking people at the UN can overturn that?

I have faith that Afghan women are helping each other, and I hope that there is a silent resistance. However from my sofa in London it would be mere virtual signalling to put up a post on Instagram or join a protest in Westminster for example. I want the women to keep resisting, and I hope they know we are thinking of them. But that's as much as we in the West can do.

Read "The Places In Between" by Rory Stewart. There's also lots of memoirs from Afghan women on World of Books and Amazon telling their stories.

How are women meant to do that if they're flogged for meeting a man's eye?

My understanding, though I happy to be corrected, is that the UN doesn’t interfere in the domestic affairs of a country. I’m pretty sure that was one of the key tenets when it was set up.

Also part of the reason Afghanistan is having so many problems is because of outside interference gone wrong. It was outside interference that tried to unify lots of different tribes into one country , despite people there speaking over 40 different languages, then fucked off and left when it wasn’t working leaving a huge mess. It was also outside interference that emboldened and strengthened the taliban. For people to actually help they’d need to first understand the place and not try to see it through a western lens.

Finally the U.K. government can’t even get ARAP (the program used to bring Afghanistan citizens to the U.K. who’s lives are now at risk because they helped the U.K. in some way while we were there) to work properly - literally leaving people including children effectively under house arrest or in hiding for months on end. They’re never going to manage to help a load of people who they don’t feel they owe anything to.

Do you really think the UN is sitting back and doing nothing?

https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/afghanistan/our-presence

https://www.ohchr.org/en/countries/afghanistan

It's one of the most dangerous countries in the world and UN workers risk their lives daily to try and effect changes for the Afghan people with minimal international support. They are also putting pressure on Pakistan in terms of their treatment of Afghan refugees.

And as for the poster who said Russia, the USA et al. invaded Afghanistan to try and 'drag the country into the twentieth century'- that's really rather a bizarre assertion.

There was an interesting documentary on C4 recently about attempts by Iranian women (and men) to fight back against their regime. Iran is a wealthier country with a more educated population - and yet many lost their lives and/or faced lengthy imprisonment.

I don’t think this is true. I work with some families from Afghanistan and the fathers and brothers fought tooth and nail to get their daughters/sisters out and give them a different life. My experience is they find it a bit of a culture shock at first and struggle to balance the values that they want to keep with the freedoms they want their family to have but they fully embrace the new opportunities.

Nobody cares about women, that's why. The world didn't stand passively aside during apartheid did it? No - South Africa was rightly sanctioned to the max, was made a global pariah and was forced to change. But the utter horror in Afghanistan when half the population can't even look out of the window? Absolutely nothing. If men were being oppressed we'd be straight over there of course.

Afghan women had the vote before American women so it's not simply "culture".

One of the main reasons the taliban is in power is due to the support they were given by the US, UK and others when Russia invaded. When the soviet backed government fell, the taliban was able to rise to power, partly due to the huge levels of external support they had received.

That's just really bollocks. South Africa was an international country with a regime that many (including Thatcher) pretty much supported. What sanctions can we impose upon the world's poorest country?

I think there are some pretty disgusting things being said about ordinary Afghan males on here, some of whom were the interpreters who we have treated like absolute shit.

What, exactly, do you suggest?

Because unlike the closest modern equivalent of apartheid, it is only women in Afghanistan that are enslaved ( and for those that object to the use of the term slavery in this context, it is the correct term for a system under which one has no rights to bodily autonomy, to refuse sex, to freedom of movement, to work , to an education , to medical treatment, to go out of the house unaccompanied, to receive payment for one’s labour, to go to a park, or look out of a window where one can be observed ). The UN etc have no interest in women as a class and no army.

Because unlike the apartheid regime, there is no freedom of speech or mechanisms such that enslaved Afghani women can group together or seek external support to generate the tidal wave of resistance that destroyed apartheid. Women - even where educated and strong - will not risk their children so opportunities to resist are few.

It’s horrible. In time there will be some resolution as the population dies out. No
medical treatment won’t help the birth rate or health of the population.

And yet this site is still full of posters calling all men toxic and abusive because the don't provide enough emotional support or are changing nappies the "wrong" way. 🙄

This is where framing misogynistic, religious expectations as 'choice' & 'empowerment' leads. Can't describe it as religious & cultural freedom here, while simultaneously condemning it as oppression elsewhere.

No Jews, no news.

What’s happening in Afghanistan is a tragedy. The UN won’t do much. 25% of its membership are Muslim / Muslim majority countries and they won’t want to undermine their fellow Organisation of Islamic Cooperation members.

I’m not saying they’d all like to treat women so abominably but they don’t care enough to shame / stop others from doing so.

There are very high levels of sanctions against Afghanistan. The problem is it is so insular, and following years of war, there is very little trade that the sanctions impact. Save for another occupation what else can the rest of the world do? There seems to be very little appetite for military action to drive regime change.

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The Un cannot stop developed countries like Israel and Russia from murdering people . They have no chance against a country that has no real need to trade and work with other countries

Pakistan is forcefully expelling 1 million Afghan refugees back across the border into Afghanistan - but no news.

China is actively persecuting the Uyghur Muslims including putting them into concentration camps, blowing up Mosques etc etc - but no news.

The ongoing genocide of Christians in Sudan by the Muslim janjaweed displacing 12.5 million Christians- but no news.

Now why is this?

This. And then receive negativity for sticking our nose in..

Because there is nothing we can do.
Literally.

We have tried military action- to no avail. The Russians tried military action in the 70s and 80s and got battered.

There are considerable ssnctions in place which don't make much difference.

It's absolutely horrendous but there is nothing that can be done other than make as much noise as we can and offer refuge etc

Has Afghanistan achieved full parish status though. Like North Korea? Are they sending athletes to the Olympics? Fielding a football team for the world Cup. If they are all that stuff should stop surely (as it should for Israel and Russia tbh).