Women of Afghanistan

[LadeOde]

I know this isn't news really but don't understand how a country can do this to its own citizens. This is a regime of total hate towards women;
The latest policy being that women are not allowed to hear other women's voices. This is in addition to an already long bizarre list:

Source: Telegraph.

It's so horrific and shocking. The scale of it is hard to comprehend. How can the whole country allow their daughters, sisters and mothers to be treated so badly and to have this many restrictions imposed in such a short time?

I don't know what the solution is but it seems so widespread and impacting (obviously) 50% of the country, I think it's unfixable by an outside force.

As a pp said, presumably vast numbers of women are dying or in need of medical treatment and unable to access it.

All religions were created by men for men.

Can anyone name a religion that was created for the empowerment of women?
We shall never get rid of religion while people are afraid of death.

That would indeed be lovely, fighting for their mothers, sisters, wives and daughters.
Many things are in crisis these days, including masculinity, which has been reduced to a minority of men. We spend a lot of time worrying about the definition of Woman, but to be honest, look at what a Man is today.
The talibans are very well armed and trained on fighting, so I suppose there is where their dominance fall. I do not think they are just a few. That is something I do not know, anyone knows the percentage of the population they represent?
It has happened with many other regimes too. Look at Nort Korea, the Nazis... they kept millions imprisoned and controlled.
The wearing of the population phyche is a talent they do have. Not allowing them to talk to each other, so they do not ally is a key point. For some reason they feel powerless, yet they are the majority and if they all rise together, there is no way anyone can stop them.

It’s beyond anything in the handmaids tale and can’t believe people aren’t talking about this more. I know though there is very little we can do…

He wanted to be able to say that, by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, there were no US troops in Afghanistan.

True, Trump and his crony Khalilzad cooked up a shitty deal on withdrawal that told the weak and corrupt Afghan government they were in their own and they'd be gone, but it was Biden who set the withdrawal timetable, also because the US was seen as the evil western occupiers and the progressive caucus who rallied to him with BLM also wanted out.it was good domestic politics.

The fact that thousands of Afghans died scrambling to escape especially at the Bagram airbase was incidental to the main thing that Biden promised no more dead US troops in Afghanistan, but the evacuation killed approximately 13 special forces in an ISIS suicide bombing there

Why not hearing other women voices?

JKR knows why:

https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1851225095085183406

I can imagine a home schooling, home education and support for women going on. Midwives, doctors, teachers meeting with students and women nearby. All this against "virtue" rules. So now, they cannot talk to each other.
There is nothing for a society to win when the mothers of the next generation are broken. It is a proven fact that children of educated and independant mothers have a better chance at life.

Are you advocating that we invade and impose our Western ideals and values on foreign citizens? I am astounded: only a few weeks ago there was a thread on here tearing into cultural relativism and ideas that some societies (ie Western) are superior to others. Wouldn't this open us up to accusations of colonial oppressors/ white saviours?

I think maybe you also need to think more deeply about why this doesn't happen in Christian countries and yet it does in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan. The Taliban are following Sharia law. Theirs is an orthodox or classical interpretation but this is Islamic law nonetheless. A woman is worth half as much as a man.

A woman is worth half as much as a man
As much as that?.

Genuinely curious
What happens if a woman's husband dies and she has no family?

Not in Afganistan. Thete a woman does not really live, just exist! Barely and quietly.

She will die.
Even when she has children.
Or she can marry some other man.

"or she can marry some other man" or rather, she will be married off to another man. There is never any release until they die.

There was a film years ago about an Afghan girl who disguised herself as a boy so she could support her family. I can’t remember the details but I remember being upset at the end - I think she ends up married to an old man. I think it was partly based on a true story.

At the end of the day there have been countries in Afghanistan since the 70’s. Russia/US/UK and nothing has changed.

The only way you could get the Taliban out would be through colonisation and that’s just not something which is feasible any more.

People want the west to go in and force change. Are you prepared for your son to die in the name of another country’s issues?

There are millions of women in Afghanistan. Enough that they could rise up against this regime, so why aren’t they? Especially the women who will have had a taste of education/more liberal existences.

The only way that women gained the vote in western societies was by rebelling against the laws which prevented them from doing so.

And before people say that women are afraid to rise up because they will be killed for doing so, of course that’s a consideration. But people expect their sons and brothers to be killed instead in the name of another country’s regime, a regime which will never likely change.

You might find this very detailed exposition useful.
You are surely aware that dancing in public is illegal in Iran, as is any music judged to 'encourage' dance.

I’m disappointed there is nothing on the Muslim mumsnetters board about this and there doesn’t appear to be any condemnation from other Muslim countries.

There are millions of women in Afghanistan. Enough that they could rise up against this regime, so why aren’t they?

Because they'll be raped, tortured, beaten up, imprisoned and killed. They're not allowed out without a man and they're banned from joining protests. They're not allowed to talk to each other or meet, or use social media. They're beaten up if they're caught outside without a man.

The Taliban were gifted some very expensive weaponry from the Yanks and the women are unarmed.

Did you ask the same question of black people in SA during Apartheid? Why don't they just rise up?

Is there not? How bizarre.

There are millions of women in Afghanistan. Enough that they could rise up against this regime, so why aren’t they? Especially the women who will have had a taste of education/more liberal existences. *

Are you seriously asking that? They have been crushed. The law is designed so they can't even organise peaceful protest or civic disobedience. They can't even own a phone pr go anywhere without a pain. They are all virtually prisoners. Where would they get the weapons from?

I don't know what the answer is. Western interference made things worse than ever, so I don't know if the answer is to go to war again.

I've been thinking about these poor women since I heard the news about the new law. Horrific. I keep railing against the why. Why do this to half the population? People you live alongside, share your home with, love presumably. I can only think the men consider the women some kind of massive threat. But why a threat?

Afghanistan gets compared with medieval Europe but even then women could join convents, rich women did exist, abbesses had certain powers, despite the torture, violence and sexism of the times. To my knowledge, this country is much worse than anything known in Europe.

The greatest possible disincentive to women rising up is what might happen to their children. I sometimes fantasise about the women gathering on masse and word spreading until almost every woman in the land walks to the border and claims asylum- would the afghanis kill them all? But of course it won’t happen - maternal instinct to protect children.

It seems incredible that in the early 1970’s Afghan Women could wear western clothing and attend university.

Female Hippy trail travellers used to breathe a sigh of relief reaching Afghanistan after travelling through Pakistan.
Russian Invasion seemed to end all this freedom.

Very hard for Afghan Women and Girls.

A very good Film - available free online- is “
Osama” about an Afghan girl who pretends to be a boy, not because of trans ideology, but because she had no other options.
( English subtitles)

Watch “Osama “ about this..
Afghan film about women in Afghanistan
Award winning but harrowing

Skateistan used to be a charity in Kabul to help educate girls ( taught separately to boys) but that’s all ended now.

The Trump administration in February 2020 negotiated a withdrawal agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government, freed 5,000 imprisoned Taliban soldiers and set a date certain of May 1, 2021, for the final withdrawal.

Biden was just as keen to exit and did just that in August 2021, withdrawal date that he inherited. Despite obvious signs that the Taliban wasn’t complying with the agreement.

The USA and the West in general have behaved appallingly. Another in the long list of shameful actions.