Afghanistan

[EdithStourton]

I've just read the BBC article and seeing all the restrictions on women together in one place is just profoundly depressing.
Can't go to school
Can't go to uni
Can't go to work
Can't even go to the sodding park

It must be horrendous. How can they change things? What can we do?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-66461711

I honestly don't know if there is much we can do. I don't want to sound defeatist, but the world has interfered in Afghanistan for many years and it hasn't helped.

There are some charities still working there. Try the Linda Norgrove Foundation.

It's hard to see how anyone here in the UK can do much to effect change. I would suggest supporting any charities that still work directly with women, if any are still able to.

Joe Biden I blame him

Thanks for that recommendation, @ArabeIIaScott

My youngest DD is still at uni. She would have been distraught to have been told she couldn't go back to complete her course.

I’m afraid I agree. We interfered and the women are paying the price. It is unbearable, and all I think we can do is bear witness.

it will soon be a year since that young woman was murdered by the police over a hijab. Mahsa Amini, all we can really do is remeber her name.

I don't think there is much that can be done. Interference from the West has caused untold harm in Afghanistan and, at this stage, would more likely put Afghanis off women's rights rather than enable them.

There's nothing we can do.

Western interference has caused a great deal of harm and any change has to come from within the Afghan people.

There's a 10k in October.

https://lindanorgrovefoundation.org/get-involved/events/linda-norgrove-foundation-2023-10k/

https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/5939158/linda-norgrove-foundation-afghanistan-3-million/

I think some Taliban object to the restrictions on women’s education, I believe some of them send their daughters to gulf nations to be educated. I think there has been some pressure from Saudi and the UAE on girl’s education. I’m clinging onto that but tbh the Taliban have been pretty resistant to pressure. I’m not really sure anything can be done about it which is miserable.

Did anyone catch on R4 The World Tonight last night, the interview with the Afghan psychotherapist - a woman who is treating girls and women, and is involved in girls' education - all with great secrecy and at great risk, of course? (On BBC Sounds, about 19 minutes in). Very sad and powerful testimony.

Interestingly, she said that the Taliban are aware of girls being home-schooled but turn a blind eye because they recognise if they weren't occupied they would be rioting on the streets. She talked about girls and women being suicidal. I wonder at what point, women will see life as so intolerable they will initiate mass protest?

Also, to echo others' points about Western intervention, she pointed out how in rural areas a misogynistic view is shared widely - suggesting that even if the Taliban were pushed out, many Afghans would continue to resist the idea of girls being educated.

Women can't go to the hairdressers or spas, either. The goal is to erase women's visible existence.

In a generation or so there will be no female dentists or physicians if these draconian rules remain. At that point women will just die of treatable illnesses, I assume.

We can support any organisations which still work for women and girls in Afghanistan, we can help Afghan women to get their voice heard outside their country, and we can fight against the Taliban flavour of Islam spreading elsewhere.

@DadDadDad

Also, to echo others' points about Western intervention, she pointed out how in rural areas a misogynistic view is shared widely - suggesting that even if the Taliban were pushed out, many Afghans would continue to resist the idea of girls being educated.

The prequel to this era, i.e., the previous Taliban rule, was explained by some observers as partly based on the widespread misogynistic views which are deeply embedded in the rural cultures, especially among the Pashtuns.

As a total aside, resistance to the education of girls wasn't unknown in at least some Western countries a couple of centuries ago. I came upon some sources on that for a couple of countries. So this is not an entirely Afghan phenomenon but it is much exacerbated by the extremist interpretation of Islam the Taliban supports.

And though I agree that the interference from the West, and the occupation, was very misguided, it's worth mentioning that women's health outcomes did considerably improve during that time period.

I think there are a number of groups working to held women in Afghanistan in an undercover way, and because of the need to protect women involved they dont usuallly make public what they are doing. And I thought because the Taliban, or rather as has been said upthread, the entrenched patriarchy in rural areas, has made it virtually impossible to provide aid to women, as it can only be delivered by women, but women have had more and more of their freedom of movement restricted.

The Governmental level of pressure seems unlikely to work as it has already been shown that rather than work with western aid agencies the Taliban are willing to let people suffer through lack of food and medical support - let alone education for women.

This is one suggestions of how Government's could put pressure on the Taliban. Posting for info not that I think it is the best that can be done. https://theconversation.com/the-talibans-war-on-women-in-afghanistan-must-be-formally-recognized-as-gender-apartheid-210688