Continuous obliteration of women’s rights goes hand in hand with export of terrorism
Not content with robbing Afghan women of all their rights, the Taliban are pressing forward with measures that would victimise and humiliate them further. The latest indication of this is provided by a verbal outburst by its chief, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, who said, towards the end of March, 2024, in a voice message carried by Afghanistan’s state television, “You say it is a violation of women’s human rights” but “we will soon implement the punishment for adultery. We will flog women in public. We will stone them to death.” The report (datelined March 26, 2024) by Akhtar Makoii in The Telegraph of the United Kingdom, which carries the above quote, further cites Akhundzada, who was addressing Western officials, as saying, “These are all against your democracy but we will continue doing it. We both say we defend human rights—we do it as God’s representative and you as the devil’s.”
What Akhundzada said deserves attention for two reasons. It indicates that fresh barbarous steps against Afghan women are on the anvil. Second, his use of the expression ‘representatives of the devil” reflects the visceral hatred that he and the Taliban harbour towards the Western democracies. Further, the indication that the Taliban would fight against the West until sharia rule is established there as well, is implicit in his statement, also quoted in the same report in The Telegraph, “I told the Mujahedin that we tell the Westerners that we fought against you for 20 years and we will fight 20 and even more years against you…. We will bring Sharia to this land.”
The Taliban are proceeding apace in implementing the provisions of Sharia law all over Afghanistan. At this rate, why should it take 20 years “and even more” to complete the process? It would take, at the most, not more than several years. The time span Mullah Akhundzada mentioned makes sense only if he was thinking of establishing Sharia rule beyond Afghanistan—a move that would lead to conflict. Against this, at the Taliban’s first official news conference in Kabul on 17 August 2021, two days after taking the city over, Zabihullah Mujahid, their spokesman, had said that they wished for peaceful relations with other countries and no group would be allowed to use Afghan territory to attack other nations.
The Taliban, however, have not always acted according to their pronouncements. Mujahid had also said at the same press conference, “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims. They should be in the Government structure according to Shariah law.” What has happened in practice is well-known. Since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban in August 2021, women have been wholly excluded from public office, the judiciary and NGO employment. Women and girls are required to adhere to a strict dress code, covering themselves from head to toe, and are not permitted to travel more than 75 kilometres without a close male relative belonging to the category of mahram—one in front of whom a woman does not have to wear a hijab. Girls have been barred from joining secondary schools and women from tertiary education. Women and girls have been banned from entering amusement parks, public baths, gyms and sports clubs.
Those believing in the Taliban’s profession of its desire to avoid conflicts, can refer to the fact that, as of now, the Taliban cannot win a conventional war against the West. This, however, is a reality that a rational person will recognize. The Taliban are fanatics. If nothing else, their unquestioning allegiance to their obscurantist and perverse version of Islam is proof thereof. Besides, their fanatical belief in their ultimate triumph against the West seems to have been reinforced by their ascent to power in Afghanistan after 20 years of war with the United States and its allies.
The Taliban’s conflict with the West may, doubtless, take the form of an asymmetrical rather than a conventional war, with terror strikes at the US, its allies and their interests on their own soil or abroad, as the principal weapon. Indeed, Afghanistan may again become a global exporter of terrorism even if the Taliban are not involved. As the 13th report of the Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team (ASSMT) of the UN Security Council, submitted on May 25, 2022, states, the relationship between al-Qaeda and the Taliban remains close and is underscored by the presence, both in Afghanistan and the region, of al-Qaeda core leadership and affiliated groups, such as Al-Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS). That this was right was proved by the killing in Kabul of the al-Qaeda supremo, Ayman al-Zawahiri, by a drone strike by the US on July 31, 2022. Terrorist outfits like Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and Islamic State of Khorasan Province (ISKP) are also active in Afghanistan. The former has been targeting Pakistan and the latter has claimed responsibility for the recent attack at the Crocus City Hall concert venue outside Moscow on March 22, 2024, which killed 140 people.
Contrary to Zabihullah Mujahid’s assurance mentioned earlier in this column, Afghanistan is becoming a launching pad for terrorism abroad. The world must take serious note of this, as it must of the plight of Afghan women.
(The author is Consulting Editor, The Pioneer. The views expressed are personal)
