As the Taliban eyes a return to power, Afghans fear that the insurgents have set about eradicating the country’s civil society and institutions, which impede their path to restoring the brutal Islamist state that dominated during the 1990s.
The group claims that it has moved away from its notorious treatment of women at that time, when they were barred from education and work, forced to wear the burqa and faced public flogging or execution for violating Taliban laws.
Reading this actually took me back in time to the 90’s, to the day I first read about the Taliban’s treatment of women in some random email that was forwarded on to me, I think. It still wasn’t being reported widely in MSM, I hadn’t come across it anyway, and I wasn’t sure whether it was a reliable source. I’m just now remembering my utter shock, horror and disbelief that day.
It seemed unthinkable to me then that women’s rights could have gone so far backwards, anywhere in the world. I couldn’t get my head around it. If it was true, I didn’t understand why the world wasn’t making a huge noise about it, instead of the truth being almost smuggled out, doing the rounds via this email in this desperate attempt to raise awareness.
Of course it did all turn out to be true. It was the Handmaid’s Tale in RL.
It’s sobering to remember that, and to realise that over the last two to three decades, this has become normalised, insofar as while the horror remains, it is no longer unexpected. It no longer seems out of step with everything I thought I knew about the world. We have seen so much of this rollback of women’s rights, freedoms, protections and status, in so many arenas, it’s not “news” any more that misogyny is still so viciously entrenched, and we are nowhere near eradicating it.
Heartbreaking to see this news, and desperately worrying.