Human Lives Human Rights: In the last four parts, we monitored the situation of women’s rights in Afghanistan during the last few decades and analyzed some of the weak and strong aspects of the issue of women’s rights in this country.
Looking at the past, we realize that in the post-occupation era, the situation of women’s rights has experienced significant progress, and legally, many dark areas of women’s rights have been covered by the light of the law, but, another challenge was faced by women’s rights, which was the very traditional view ruling the Afghan society and it was considered a big obstacle on this winding road.
The Afghan women’s community was still fighting to restore their rights when the Takfiri Taliban terrorists attacked this country again in 2021 and disrupted human rights in Afghanistan. With the occupation of the government by the Taliban, many of Afghanistan’s previous laws were canceled and the status of women’s rights, like other laws, came under the negative effects of this occupation, to the extent that some analysts believe that the collapse of the republican system in Afghanistan and the return of the Taliban to power in this country have had the most negative impact on women’s society.
This issue becomes clearer when the officials of the Taliban government officially take a stand. For example, in the winter of 2022, the Minister of Higher Education of the Taliban government announced that in the past fourteen months, there were objections in the field of women’s education, and for this reason, it has been decided to postpone education in universities.
He further said that since the new government took office, he waited for the reform of the universities, but these problems were not solved, and therefore it was decided to ban the education of girls until further notice. Mohammad Nadim continued to list the following basic reasons for suspending the education of female students in universities: First, the activity of female student dormitories in the provinces of Afghanistan is against the dignity of Afghans and Pashtuns. It is not permissible for girls to study without family members in another province and travel without Sharia Mahram (guardian). Second, non-observance of full hijab by female students. Thirdly, the mixed culture of men and women, and fourthly, the presence of female students in the subjects that are not suitable for women and does not suit their dignity.
With the issuance of this order by the Taliban government and the announcement of a complete ban on women’s education in public and private universities in Afghanistan, many international reactions came forward, and the US State Department, European authorities, the United Nations, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar, Turkey, etc. condemned this action of the Taliban interim government, and other countries such as Pakistan, China, Russia and Iran demanded a review in this regard, but the Taliban government did not pay the slightest attention to these reactions.
It is clear that Afghan girls and women have faced increasing instability since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, to the extent that it is estimated that about three million high school girls have been deprived of education for more than a year, and despite the fact that the banning of girls’ education in universities was issued in early 2022, high school girls were previously denied education by the Taliban.
According to the Taliban’s patriarchal laws, which are rooted in Pashtun traditions and their takfiri beliefs, the description shows that a happy future for the Afghan women’s society is unimaginable, and even the important issue of seeking legitimacy cannot compel the Taliban to refrain from anti-women positions, because some analysts at the beginning of the formation of the second government of the Taliban believed that the Taliban would not ignore the rights of women to gain legitimacy, but in practice, some other things happened, which proved that this point of view was wrong.
According to what is deduced from the situation in Afghanistan, one cannot hope for the future of human rights in general and women’s rights in particular, and it is predicted that the Taliban terrorists, who have neither smelled Islam nor felt humanity, will destroy all the efforts that have been made to restore women’s rights in Afghanistan.
