The group’s role has changed significantly since the Taliban’s capture of Kabul on August 15, 2021. But this time the Taliban leaders have shown a little more tact. To establish legitimacy, the Taliban have gone out of their way to present a more liberal image of themselves to the world by vowing to respect women’s rights and freedoms.

But in reality, each passing day has only brought a stream of bad news for women and girls in Afghanistan. Evidence emerging from the ground suggests that the group is taking a number of regressive steps to reduce the spaces for women to express themselves freely.

Order

Since coming to power nationwide, the Taliban were quick to issue new codes of conduct for Afghan women, restricting their mobility and taking away their free will. He mandated that women wear clothing that completely covered their hair, body and most of their face; They also stipulated that women had to have a male guardian when leaving their home. While these practices are in line with the old order of the regime dating back to the 1990s, the newly issued decree is just one example of how the Taliban have begun to take away the rights of Afghan women under the guise of enforcing Islamic law.

no school, job

The Taliban repeatedly assured women access to education and employment – ​​a key part of its promise to treat women differently under its new rule. Instead, many women are now without jobs; They have been asked to stay away from work. Despite the fact that women accounted for more than 27% of government jobs under the previous civilian administration, the Taliban has gone ahead and banned these female government employees from returning to work; Men have to fill the resulting vacancies. Therefore, the new Taliban government has only male officials who are now responsible for making all decisions, including those related to women.

In the education sector, the Taliban’s Ministry of Education has issued an order for male students and teachers of classes 6 to 12, with no mention of schoolgirls. A recent BBC report said that a top Taliban official has confirmed that girls will be banned from attending secondary school. Teachers are also reporting a worrying drop in girls’ attendance in primary schools.

But segregation of classes on the basis of gender is only one side of the story, but taking away from girls their right to education completely comes with serious risk of pushing them towards poverty and backwardness. This may very well supersede all the progress achieved by Afghan women in the past, where women’s participation in education was 65%, with many girls in school and thousands in university. Just last year, the number of girls in the country’s 9.5 million students was 39 percent.

When will these girls be allowed to return to school? Or will they be allowed to return at all? These questions remain unanswered.

special decree

On 3 December, the Taliban issued a special decree on women’s rights, which outlined rules governing marriage and property for Afghan women. The decree states that “the consent of adult women is necessary during marriage” and that a widow has a certain share in her husband’s property. While this is a welcome move, the decree – in its practical form – does little to solve the larger problems facing Afghanistan’s women.

For example, at no point does the decree explicitly address the wider issue of child marriage that has been prevalent since before the Taliban came to power and continues to be of concern to the international community. According to a UNICEF estimate (November 2021), “28 percent of Afghan women aged 15–49 were married before the age of 18”. And these numbers have only increased with the COVID-19 pandemic, the ongoing food crisis, the onset of winter and political instability. The decree also contains levels of ambiguity in the sense that while speaking of consenting adult women, it does not specify who can be classified as these “adult women”. Nor does it specify how the Islamic group intends to apply these provisions in a country where poor families see the marriage of their daughters as a viable option to overcome financial difficulties.

But what is even more troubling is that the decree summarized all women’s rights only in the context of marriage, providing an important insight into the Taliban’s thinking. face to face Woman. As such, the decree fails to mention anything about women’s access to education or employment.

termination of services

Gender-based violence is one of the most widespread problems. Studies show that approximately 87% of Afghan women experience at least one form of violence – physical, sexual or psychological – and about 62% experience multiple forms.

But before the Taliban took over the country, many women and girls who survived gender-based violence had access to shelters and essential services like medical treatment, psychological support, and more. selfless legal representation. The survivors were actually granted access to the system through the provincial and capital offices of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and human rights commissions. And even though these systems weren’t perfect, they helped thousands of women in Afghanistan each year.

Under the Taliban, shelters are being closed and detainees are being released from prison, including many of those convicted of crimes related to gender-based violence, endangering the lives of survivors .

The new Taliban government has replaced the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with the Ministry for the Propagation/Proliferation of Virtue and the Prevention of Evil, and abolished the most important legal system – the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 2009 – a law that regulates rape. , battery and commits offences. Forced marriage.

Thus, from these examples, it would be fair to say that within four months of being in power in Kabul, the hardline Islamist group has adopted harsh policies that limit the rights and freedoms of women in Afghanistan – a dress code, a one-time education and employment, imprisonment in the domestic sector and reduced access to services. Nevertheless, all these steps are a true demonstration of the Taliban’s seriousness on providing freedom to Afghan women. After all, leopards haven’t really changed their spots.

Akanksha Khullar is India’s Country Coordinator at Women’s Regional Network

https://news.bharattimes.co.in/for-afghan-women-this-is-great-regression/