No country for women: Taliban’s all-male cabinet stirs fear of a ‘dark future’
Women in the country allege they have been relegated to their houses and that the progress they had made has already been overturned
“The Taliban respects women’s rights. Women will be allowed to leave homes alone and they will have access to education and work, but they will have to wear the hijab”.
This was one of the vows that the Taliban had made when it stormed to power on 15 August in an effort to portray themselves as more moderate than when they imposed a strict form of Islamic rule in the late 1990s.
However, the announcement of the new regime under Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund has exposed the Taliban’s true nature as it ignores women, who make up half of the population of the war-torn country.
It is pertinent to mention that the announcement of the new Taliban government came at a time when the insurgent group was seen opening fire on women protesting against Pakistan in Kabul on Tuesday. Moreover, a women’s protest in Kabul on Saturday was also crushed by Taliban fighters, who used tear gas and batons.
Women in Afghanistan
Afghanistan has a population of roughly 34 million. Of these, 15 million are male and 14.2 million are female.
Women’s rights in Afghanistan have been varied throughout history. Women officially gained equality under the 1964 constitution.
During the previous Taliban rule in the 1990s, women in Afghanistan were essentially put under house arrest, and often forced to paint their windows over so that no one could see in or out. They were forbidden from going to work and could leave their house only when accompanied by a male member. They were denied formal education.
However, with the ouster of the Taliban regime and a new government under Hamid Karzai, women once again saw a change in their societal positions. As per the new rules, women were allowed education, they were allowed to drive and even participate in international events such as the Olympics.
Under the new constitution of 2004, 27 percent of the 250 seats in the House of the People were reserved for women.
As of date, women are facing an uncertain future with the Taliban coming to power.
While the spokesman of the Taliban has said that they were committed to providing women “their rights based on Islam”, women are wary.
Reports tell a different story. Afghan women journalists have said they have not been allowed to work by the insurgents. Women in Herat had been stripped of their jobs two weeks ago, reports from elsewhere include gunmen ordering bank tellers out of their jobs in Kandahar.
As per another report, Taliban fighters had shot down a policewoman in Firozkoh, the capital of central Ghor province. However, the Taliban refuted the claims, saying the woman, named in local media as Banu Negar, was murdered owing to “personal enmity or something else”.
In education, too, there are clear signs women will face extensive and damaging exclusion. According to the new rules, women must be provided with transport in buses with covered windows and a curtain separating them from the presumably male driver. All new classes must be segregated, and in current classes with under 15 women, a “sharia partition” must be erected to keep students of different gender apart. Ideally, teachers will also be separated by gender, the new rules say.
Afghan women and politics
In the recent past, women in Afghanistan have played an active part in politics by holding political office.
By 2020, 21 percent of Afghan civil servants were women (compared with almost none during the Taliban years), 16 percent of them in senior management levels; and 27 percent of Afghan members of parliament were women.
Fawzia Koofi, Zarifa Ghafari and Salima Mazari are some of the noted leaders in Afghanistan, who have stayed back and hoping to maintain the rights of women and girls.
Koofi, a presidential candidate in 2014, was also among the world’s “150 Fearless Women” by The Daily Beast news website for her bold account of the hardships that women face in Afghanistan in her book The Favoured Daughter.
Soon after the Taliban announced its new cabinet, reactions of disapproval poured in over the lack of women’s representation.
Pramila Patten, the acting head of UN Women, said, “Following today’s news of the exclusion of women in the new Government announced by the Taliban, I join with many around the world in expressing my disappointment and dismay at a development that calls into question the recent commitments to protect and respect the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls.”
“I further note with serious concern the reported use of force by authorities in Kabul against peaceful protestors, mostly women, who were demanding the equal enjoyment of their rights. These actions reinforce and validate concerns about restrictions being placed in practice on women’s human rights, including their right to participate in public and political life,” she said.
Afghanistan’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the UN Ghulam Isaczai said, “As I speak and today, the Taliban announced their government. It is anything but inclusive. The people of Afghanistan, especially our youth who have only known a free and democratic Afghanistan, will not accept a governing structure that excludes women and minorities, eliminate constitutional rights for all and does not protect the gains of the past.”
BBC correspondent Barbara Plett Usher pointed out not only the absence of women but also the women’s affairs ministry.
#Taliban caretaker govt has no women cabinet members & no Women Affairs Ministry. Their line on this is “the cabinet is not complete yet.”
— Barbara Plett Usher (@BBCBarbaraPlett) September 7, 2021
The same was also pointed out by deputy director for operations of the Afghanistan-based TOLO News, Abdul Farid Ahmad.
“There is no female included in the Taliban Cabinet and they have eliminated women’s ministry from the Afghanistan cabinet. Also, there is no ethnic balance in the Taliban cabinet,” he tweeted.
There is no female included in the #Taliban Cabinet and they have eliminated women’s ministry from the #Afghanistan cabinet.
Also there is no Ethnics balance in the Taliban cabinet.— Abdul Farid Ahmad (@FaridAhmad1919) September 7, 2021
What lies ahead
“A return to the dark days” is how Afghan women are putting their despair into words.
Fawzia Koofi was quoted as saying: “The future for women in Afghanistan appears.”
Women fear that they will be targeted under Taliban rule. The group was “not afraid of the world’s superpowers,” Koofi added, but it was “afraid of women.”
With inputs from agencies
