A dirge for Afghan girls and women?

IT is no news that we now have an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the firm control and tutelage of the Taliban. The world is getting used to once again living with and accepting the Taliban’s overlordship of Afghanistan, with all the gnashing of teeth and regrets that entails. The last time that the Taliban were in the saddle in Afghanistan, the world came to know about the level of atrocities they were capable of under their form of interpretation and  practice of Islam. Part of the Taliban Islamic code then permitted them to harbour other die-hard Islamic fanatics including those who planned and executed the infamous September 11, 2001 attack. The world was taken aback by the depravity of the 9/11 actions of the Al-Qaeda elements and the Taliban who gave them sanctuary that there was almost universal unanimity about the need to dislodge both the Taliban and Al-Qaeda from their power platform in Afghanistan. The invasion by the American military under authorization by then President, George W. Bush, in 2001 started the dislodgement of the Taliban government and the setting up of a new American and internationally-backed government in Kabul.

The persistence, however,  of the international community under the leadership of the US to expend enormous resources into setting up Afghanistan on another path different from the Taliban path  was mainly based on the realization of a pressing need to prevent a conducive environment again for terrorism. Which would explain why the world did not move against the Taliban until the 9/11 terrorist attack on the US. The world then did not see anything to oppose in the Taliban almost denying the humanity of girls and women and subjecting them to draconian restrictions. In line with their interpretation and practice of Islamic law, the Taliban, before being dislodged, established a moral police that forced men to grow beard and women to wear full-body burqas. Women were also required to not venture into the public without being accompanied by a male guardian at the risk of being beaten, if not killed. That was a harrowing time for girls and women as they were forced by the Taliban to stay at home and forbidden to study or go to work. As a result of this, Sahraa Karimi, president of the state-run Afghan Film Organisation, reported that zero girls were in school when the Taliban were in power until they were dislodged in 2001.

The Taliban carried out public executions, chopped off the hands of thieves and stoned (to death) women accused of adultery. These atrocities against girls and women were carried out without the world caring at all. The same way we do not think the world is concerned again about the plight of girls and women as the Taliban have staged and are staging a comeback to power in Afghanistan. On their way to power this time around, there were reports of the usual Taliban atrocities against girls and women as they gained control over several provinces. In a desperate letter to the world before she finally had the chance to leave Afghanistan, SahraaKarimi, writes about the Taliban ‘massacr(ing) our people … (with) many children being killed and girls sold as child brides to Taliban fighters, … (even as) they murdered a woman for wearing the wrong clothes and gouged out the eyes of another.’ Yet, we know that girls and women made good progress and development in the 20 years that the Taliban were out of power in Afghanistan.

For we find that through those intervening years, we now have “over 9 million Afghan girls in school. Herat, the third largest city … (has) nearly 50 per cent women in its university. These are incredible gains that the world hardly knows about.” And these gains are at the risk of not just being turned back, but of the possibility of moving girls and women further into the abyss, if the world does not change its attitude to the Taliban in Afghanistan by insisting on and demanding from them a working respect for the humanity of girls and women, and their rights and abilities to live a fulfilling life including the ability to have education and human dignity. It is remarkable that in just a few weeks of Taliban ascendancy, for instance, we have reports of many schools being destroyed and over 2 million girls now forced out of school. The implication is that if we do not want to sing a dirge to Afghan girls and women as they are trampled upon and killed under the Taliban, the world must do more than the usual statement from the United Nations (UN) Security Council calling ‘for an immediate cessation of all hostilities and the establishment, through inclusive negotiations, of a new government that is united, inclusive and representative – including with the full, equal and meaningful participation of women … and … an inclusive, just, durable and realistic political settlement that upholds human rights, including for women, children and minorities.’

We must be ready to match our words with action, just as indicated by the British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, that ‘we will judge this (Taliban) regime based on the choices it makes, and by its actions rather than by its words, on its attitude to terrorism, to crime and narcotics, as well as humanitarian access, and the rights of girls to receive an education …’ It would not be enough for the Taliban, through their spokespersons, Suhail Shaheen and Zabihullah Mujahid, to promise that women would still be able to live their lives freely … (and that) women can get education from primary to higher education… (just as the Taliban are) committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam … .’, they must show through concrete actions that they mean and abide with those words. Unfortunately, we know that the Taliban have not changed in any qualitative sense as admitted by Mujahid himself when he confesses that ‘the difference between the old Taliban and the new Taliban – if the question is based on ideology, and beliefs, (is that) there is no difference … .’ We should, therefore, expect them to resume their atrocities against girls and women if the world does not stand up to them.

While it is true, in line with the argument of Jill Lawrence, that the world cannot just impose its will on Afghanistan,  it is also the case that there is acceptable conduct in the international community and egregious atrocities against girls and women should make a country and society a pariah in the world. The Taliban and Afghanistan under them must be shunned and not accepted into the comity of nations if they are not able to openly treat girls and women with respect. The world has a duty to not allow the kind of grave resignation and lamentation from Zarifa Ghafari, the Mayor of MaidanShar, that ‘there is no one to help me or my family. I’m just sitting with them and my husband. And they will come for people like me and kill me.”

• Yakubu is of the Department of Communication and Language Arts, University of Ibadan.

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