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

[SCANDEL0US]

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?

You think a poster saying that women in Afghanistan are happy shouldn't be challenged?

the women clearly don’t want this or they would be standing up against these regimes and they’re not.

And yes, if someone felt strongly enough about it they would be prepared to die in the name of the cause. But there are 0 women standing up against this.

Or are posters on here prepared to let their sons die for a change that many of the women probably don’t even want.

It is disgusting to suggest that the women in Afghanistan are happy in their enslavement. Calling that out is not to say that there are easy or white-saviouresque solutions, there are not.

Because it's not on-trend amongst the chattering classes..

Sorry yes, I meant to quote the poster saying the international community sanctioned South Africa so why arent they taking action against Afghanistan.

Tell us what action they can take against Afghanistan then?

Afghanistan don’t have anything we want or need. There is literally no sanction that can be applied to Afghanistan that will make any difference.

And I can tell you from having lived there at the time that international sanctions weren’t what overturned apartheid - a lot of negotiation did so as well.

Barclays Bank famously pulled out. Of South Africa to the international commmunity’s cheers, only to re-open the next day as first national bank. Same branding, same logo, everything.

South Africa were still exporting diamonds/gold/platinnum/copper with gay abandon.

The only thing that was sanctioned was sport.

The UN has no military, how would they stop it?

And if the UN went around invading or prosecuting any country who did things they didn't approve of, the UN would very quickly cease to function because no one would be willing to be involved.

And so your plan is what then exactly?

To send your son to be killed in order tat Afghan women be allowed to hold a conversation?

Look it’s not going to happen. Western countries have spent millions trying, and the Afghans aren’t interested.

We think that Afghan women want these privileges. But the fact is we don’t know that that’s what they want.

I mean short of some army storming in and taking over what do you expect anyone to do? You can protest all you want those is charge there give zero fucks.

And as we no storming in and telling another country what to do never ends well either. History shows that. Bad guy if you do bad guy if you don’t.

But this isn't how they've grown up. Until the Taliban came in girls could go to school and women to university. Women could travel, they could have jobs, they could talk in the streets.

It is grossly unfair to say the women want this otherwise they'd be protesting. It's a very privileged view to assume they can do that when they risk torture, imprisonment, death for that. It's an even harder decision if you have children or older relatives that are reliant on you. I also think it's easy to say protest but not when you're downtrodden and feel no hope and are struggling just to survive.

Do you know what you're even asking, OP? Because the UN DOES support women in Afghanistan. It does this by constantly highlighting their plight, lobbying for global intervention, interviewing and documenting the experiences of thousands of individual women to get a picture of the changing situation, and supporting female entrepreneurs and women led businesses.

What else woud you like them to do? Experience tells us that forcing 'regime change' doesn't work when there's no plan to fill the power vacuum and support the country's regrowth. What else would you suggest other than investment, monitoring and lobbying?

https://news.un.org/en/story/2024/08/1153151

https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/stories/in-focus/2024/08/afghan-women-and-girls-push-for-their-rights-over-three-years-of-taliban-rule

@1dayatatime That’s not entirely accurate. There was a lot of corruption in the government so there was a lack of trust in them. Also conflict continued.

The Asia Foundation did this survey in 2019, obviously they can’t do one now. But early 70% of people saw the Taliban as a threat to peace. Almost 90% thought women should be able to vote. So I don’t think you can say they didn’t want it, it just wasn’t working very well.
https://asiafoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Afghanistan_2019-Survey-of-the-Afghan-People.pdf

I’m sorry but no, it isn’t “their culture”. It’s criminal. Is it ok to rape a child because it’s “their culture “? Of course not. Also, that would only be true if the women chose it for cultural reasons - they didn’t. They are prisoners in their own country.
OP I agree with you and feel totally helpless.

I’m actually shocked reading people assuming this is what these women want? So why do they maim them for speaking? Surely it wouldn’t need to be punishable by rape, death or maiming if it’s what the women want. And the 9 year old girl being married to a grown man? What she wants?
No wonder there is no global intervention if this is what people actually think.

It's dehumanisation. Slavery in the States lasted for about 250 years so I'm sure people assumed they liked it or why would it have lasted so long?

Part of the problem is the way it’s discussed. By talking about how it affects women it’s framed as a cultural issue rather than what it is - a human rights atrocity. Women ARE the people of Afghanistan, not an appendage to them. And by abusing them in this way the lives of both men and women are harmed. Families losing mothers and children in labour due to a lack of midwives is just one example.

By talking about how it affects women it’s framed as a cultural issue rather than what it is - a human rights atrocity.

This was very common here for quite some time. FGM, honour based violence and forced marriage were viewed as cultural.

The fact that these issues were a gross violation of these girls and women's human rights, didn't occur to people.

Domestic abuse was treated the same. It was a private matter between husband and wife and people didn't interfere. There was absolutely no help available.

Quite. And if British soldiers were at risk of being captured by Afghans, they were instructed to commit suicide rather than be taken. This is because Afghans (often women actually) would routinely torture-to-death any British soldiers they captured.

It's a bit dodgy identifying Taliban ideology with Afghan culture. Black abayas and niqabs came to Afghanistan very recently with Saudi-funded madrassas, and have blotted out the colourful, embroidered dresses traditionally found among the multiethnic peoples of Afghanistan - Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks, Turkmen, Baluch etc .

Other cultures aren't all the same just because it makes things simple for us. And thinking that women and girls should NOT be the property of male kinship groups is a 'western ideal', seems like racism to me.

The genocide in Sudan and Darfur is broadly Arab-identifying militias exterminating Black African peoples such as the Masalit and Zaghawa. It's not Muslim v Christian. But yes, the lack of interest from western media (and, consequently, from western 'liberals') has been and remains appalling.

I think the only thing that we can realistically do, and absolutely should do, is try to facilitate some sort of underground railway out of Afghanistan for women.

Are you saying that the Taliban and al-Qaeda had female soldiers who tortured men to death?

i’ve never heard of this. Do you have any links to read more about it?

@Badh

Read the post:

"The first (1839-42) was the greatest disaster in British military history. The second (1878-80) and third (1919)"

I’m genuinely cut up about the plight of women in Afghanistan. It’s sickening that there are people in this world who live as they have to. But people taking to the streets and protesting about it won’t change a thing for them. I don’t know what will, there are far cleverer people than me out there who probably have a better idea. But if protests and petitions do suddenly start to have a positive impact, I’d do all that.

It's sad that the same Western liberals who were very much against western military involvement in Afghanistan that sought to remove the Taliban and improve the lives of ordinary Afghans and especially women are now hand wringing over the appalling treatment of women by the Taliban.

It's a bit like "Queers for Gaza" or western liberal women on pro Palestinian marches.

The invasion of Afghanistan wasn't a charitable mission to empower women, however that's how they tried to sell it at the time.

@MiloMinderbinder925

"The invasion of Afghanistan wasn't a charitable mission to empower women, however that's how they tried to sell it at the time."

The objective of the Afghanistan conflict was to remove the Taliban from power after they had provided a base for Al Qaeda and Bin Laden. And then to install a stable democratic government system.

Whilst not the primary objective a side benefit of this would have been to improve women's rights if democratically decided. Indeed the initial elections did indeed elect a number of female politicians. Unfortunately this wasn't possible for a number of reasons including culture, fear, tribal politics, education etc etc .

I don't know who you mean by "they" but that was the historical facts regardless of how the liberal left try and reinterpret it today as an "invasion ".