What The Takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban Could Mean for Women

Isabelle Raikes

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As history repeats itself, the world has watched in awe as the extremist group, the Taliban, has swept through and taken control of Afghanistan in what can only be assumed to be a well-executed mission planned years in advance.

The Taliban were last in power in Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001 in which period they enforced oppressive and strict Islamic laws, or Sharia law, on the inhabitants of the country. Women were arguably some of the worst targets of the Taliban’s oppressive regime, being forced into a medieval-like world of patriarchy and violence. The Taliban’s latest advance has therefore raised questions surrounding what their rise in power will mean for women this time around. 

The oppressive regimes of the Taliban that women were exposed to in the late 1990s offers an insight into what could face Afghan women in the immediate future, despite the general feeling of progression in the past two decades. There are concerns that women will be excluded from education and healthcare, as well as face the enforcement of patriarchal and archaic regulations surrounding men and women, particularly in marriage. Under the Taliban’s regime of 1996-2001, women were banned from working outside of the home and going out in public without a close male relative. 

Improvements For Women’s Rights

Since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, there have been significant improvements for women’s rights with 3.3 million Afghan women in education and a significant rise in the involvement of women in the political, economic and social life of Afghanistan. This could be most prominently shown through the election of Afghanistan’s first female mayor, 29-year-old Zarifa Ghafari, in 2019 for the city of Maidan Shahr leading a number of other women to follow in her footsteps, as well as 28-year-old Zainab Fayez. She remains as the only female prosecutor in Kandahar’s attorney general’s office and has resolved over 50 cases of abuse towards females, resulting in 21 men being sent to prison for their crimes. Examples from women such as these, show the progress that has been made towards a larger female presence in Afghanistan since the Taliban, with the movement gaining the most traction in the past decade. 

Afghanistan is still far from equal, however, with 2.2 million women still not in education, as well as limited female involvement in all levels of government. The small steps made towards equality would not have been possible, however, without the removal of the Taliban. Unfortunately this indicates that the groups recent rise could cause a swift change in the direction towards a larger female presence in Afghanistan, with this most likely being halted or even reversed.

Today, the Taliban announced to Western media that they “will respect the rights of women” in Afghanistan. A spokesperson for the group, Suhail Shaheen, told the BBC that the group’s policy “is that women will have access to education and work” and be able “to wear the hijab”. This is the opposite of what was allowed under the Taliban’s previous regime, with women excluded from public settings and forced to wear a burqa at all times.

“only time will tell how much of their old ways the Taliban are willing to shake in a world very different to when they were last in power.”

Seeing comments like this from Taliban fighters, as well as their desire for a ‘peaceful transition’ of power from the previous government, points to a more reformed group respecting not only women’s but human rights. However, it is very likely that this isn’t the case and only time will tell how much of their old ways the Taliban are willing to shake in a world very different to when they were last in power.

More and more women have now appeared out in public in burqas and women’s rights activists, such as Zainab Fayez, are actively fleeing the country after receiving death threats from the group. It seems that the Taliban’s actions and words do not line up, pointing to a worrying future for the women of Afghanistan.

One can only hope that if their situation deteriorates, governments all over the globe will not turn a blind eye to their suffering and prevent the loss of two decades worth of improvement in the position of women.

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Featured image courtesy of Sohaib Ghyasi via Unsplash. Image license found here. No changes were made to this image.