The Women’s Empowerment under US-NATO
Afghanistan, under the Taliban, is the only nation in the world that forbids women from attending school. However, it is treason in the name of Islam against the millions of Afghan women and girls whose lives are systematically being persecuted. The Taliban banned women from working, closed schools to female students, and subjected them to cruel punishments such as public whipping and deaths when they were in control from 1996 to 2001. However, during the US-led NATO effort to stabilize Afghanistan from 2002 to 2021, Afghan women demonstrated historically high levels of social participation by serving as cabinet ministers, ambassadors, lawmakers, journalists, and diplomats. It is reasonable to argue that the US’s most significant achievements and most incredible legacy from its time in Afghanistan are related to women’s empowerment. At the beginning of 2021, just before the Taliban took power and the US forces left Afghanistan, 2.5 million Afghan girls were enrolled in elementary education. Women accounted for 27% of the Parliament’s members.
Furthermore, it would be absurd for the US to claim to be protecting human rights around the globe if it allowed the Taliban to exterminate half of the nation’s inhabitants. It would also expose Washington’s disregard for its laws: the Women, Peace, and Security Act of 2017 formalized American commitment to gender parity and inclusion in security, peacekeeping, and peacemaking, establishing gender parity as a cornerstone of American foreign policy. The UN is attempting to maintain a hard stance with the Taliban: the Taliban insisted that all Afghan civil society leaders be excluded from a conference of Afghan Special Representatives from 25 different nations that the UN was hosting in February in Doha. It was wise for UN Secretary-General António Guterres to reject this demand.
Taliban’s Old Wine in New Bottle
Following the US-NATO departure from Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban reestablished their authority and promised to change the country’s governance by permitting women to work and pursue education. After seizing power, they promptly closed Afghanistan’s schools to female students, although they later pledged to restore them. Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, informed reporters that women would be allowed to engage in society “within the bounds of Islamic law.” There is no distinction in how women are treated. The Taliban have steadily deprived women and girls of their rights tightened control over their lives, and even approved violence against them during the past two and a half years. To guarantee that Afghans adhere to the new regime’s rigid interpretation of Islam, the Taliban abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs. They replaced it with the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice in September 2021, marking the beginning of their war against women. The Taliban soon after demanded that all professional women resign from their positions, and in December 2021, they outlawed women from travelling outside without a male relative. Girls were only permitted to return to school in Afghanistan if they were 12 or younger in March 2022. When the Taliban declared later that year that women would no longer be allowed to work for foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) or attend universities, they further exposed their actual intentions towards women.
Crimes against Women
The Taliban are verbally and physically endorsing violence against women more and more. Official public floggings of both men and women have been the norm for offences that the Taliban consider to be “moral crimes,” such as stealing, adultery, or fleeing the country. Maulvi Abdulhai Umar, the head of Kandahar’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, gave his provincial leaders instructions in May 2023 to forbid women from visiting cemeteries and health centres because female patients and visitors were dressing inappropriately or making up illnesses. Umar ordered the provincial authorities to detain and punish brothers and fathers who failed to “correct” their daughters’ and sisters’ sins. Such directives are likely to exacerbate the problem of marital violence in a society already plagued by the issue of honour killings. Women in Afghanistan are still not allowed to wander the streets freely, whether in urban or rural regions. Thousands of women are unable to support their families financially, and millions more girls are unable to pursue an education. Girls are being pushed into marriage at an increasing rate, sometimes with much older men, and the suicide rate among Afghan women is rising as a result of their disillusionment with their future.
Aiding Afghan Women with Creative Means
It seemed improbable that the Taliban would reverse its anti-women attitudes. Regardless of the Taliban’s reaction, the United States must nonetheless adopt a moral stance in support of Afghan women and girls. It has already taken a few bold stances that show it has room to do so. The head of Afghanistan’s Academy of Sciences, Sheikh Fariduddin Mahmood, and the minister for the propagation of virtue and prevention of vice, Sheikh Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, were sanctioned by the US Treasury Department at the beginning of December. It is widely believed that these two men are responsible for the ban on secondary education for girls. Apart from mild penalties, though, the US has mainly refrained from taking concrete action against the Taliban for their mistreatment of women. Instead, the US government has concentrated on finding creative means of aiding women and girls in Afghanistan. For instance, the State Department and Boston University established the Alliance for Afghan Women’s Economic Resilience in September 2022 as a public-private partnership. Its goal is to support Afghan women’s access to online education and employment by fostering alliances between prominent Afghan women and the American private sector, academia, and civil society.
While AWER is a commendable endeavour that lets Afghan women know that the world is still aware of them, it is insufficient. Although Afghan women and girls could come up with inventive ways to learn online and further their careers, these abilities will remain unusable in Afghan society until the Taliban change their discriminatory practices. Beyond programmes like AWER, Washington and other like-minded nations need to impose more sanctions on the Taliban, including increasing the scope of sanctions against their commanders and limiting their travel privileges. Despite its strict prohibitions against women, some pundits contend that Taliban officials should be permitted to go outside and attend conferences, with the hope that exposure to a foreign audience could soften their stance. However, it seems that this argument is getting weaker. Over the past 2.5 years, Taliban officials have had the opportunity to travel and interact with international delegations regularly, but their treatment of women and girls has gotten worse.
Taliban’s Gender Aparthied
The United States should take the lead in the campaign to publicly declare the Taliban’s policies to be “gender apartheid” to assist the women of Afghanistan. Apartheid was made illegal by the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute in 1998, and governments all over the globe are now subject to punishment for it. Racial discrimination has historically been referred to by this crime, which the International Criminal Court (ICC) defines as “inhuman acts committed to establish and maintain domination by one racial group of persons over any other racial group of persons and systematically oppressing them.” However, experts from the UN are now pressing for the Draft Crimes Against Humanity Convention to recognize gender apartheid specifically. This is something that the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly will be discussing in April 2024. Classifying the Taliban’s practices as a type of gender apartheid would lead to its designation as a crime against humanity if gender apartheid is included.
The title would be incredibly appropriate in the case of the policies of the Taliban. The anti-Black South African apartheid regime did just that from the 1960s until the early 1990s. It prohibited a group of people—defined by an unchangeable physical characteristic—from accessing health care, education, and employment; it restricted their travel unless a guardian accompanied them; it imposed special legal punishments on them; and it routinely barred them from public spaces like beauty salons and gyms. In practical terms, the word would be highly beneficial if it were applied to the practices of the Taliban and made an international crime. It would create a legal responsibility to address the systemic oppression of women in Afghanistan and serve as a catalyst for foreign leaders and non-governmental organizations to take the matter more seriously.
In addition, the gender apartheid designation would promote other UN initiatives that assist women and girls in Afghanistan. Resolution 2721 of the UN Security Council demanded in December 2023 the appointment of a UN Envoy to Afghanistan. This envoy’s familiarity with human rights and gender problems is required under the resolution. However, China and Russia did not participate in the voting and demanded that the UN first confer with the Taliban before designating a representative of this kind. The UN has started to pay attention to the situation of Afghan women by assigning an ambassador role and holding a gathering of Afghan Special Representatives in Doha. However, the disrespect Beijing and Moscow have for the rights of Afghan women will make this attempt an arduous and gradual fight.
Disengagement with the Taliban is US Dereliction
Total disengagement is not the answer, as the Taliban are likely to hold onto power in the foreseeable future. However, the US has to be more willing to speak up for human rights and defend Afghan women. Supporting Afghan women is not only the moral thing to do, but it will also help counter extremist tendencies in the nation, which is a critical step considering the number of terrorist organizations operating in Afghanistan—terrorist organizations that seem to be growing. Al Qaeda has set up eight additional training centres in Afghanistan, according to the most recent UN Sanctions Monitoring Report, which was published in January 2024. The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which operates within Afghanistan and has been responsible for an increasing number of assaults against Pakistani citizens and security forces, is also growing stronger. ISIS-K recently claimed responsibility for the March 23, 2024, attack in Moscow that resulted in the deaths of over 130 people.
The more the Taliban stifle women’s participation in society, the more likely it is that radical ideas will spread and attract new members of terrorist organizations. A new generation of extremists is being produced by the Taliban, who are establishing new religious institutions and changing the curriculum in public schools to teach young men about their hardline interpretation of Islam. The only approach to stop these trends is for the US to support the global community in its efforts to preserve women’s and girls’ agency in society and to keep them in education.
Way Forward
The US has to do more to assist the UN in advancing inclusive political discourse that prioritizes women’s rights and involves leaders of Afghan civil society. In addition, Washington has to collaborate with the UN to formally label more Taliban officials as terrorists and increase the scope of human rights sanctions against them. Lastly, until the Taliban administration stops persecuting women, Washington must continue to refuse to provide diplomatic recognition to them. Washington must stand by while the Taliban oppresses women, primarily since the persecution of women would only serve to inflame the flames of other forms of extremism. The US should entirely back the UN’s accelerated efforts. Additionally, to demonstrate to the Taliban that they are not the only players in town, the US should step up its interactions with Afghan opposition figures. The Taliban have no genuine claim to political legitimacy because they seized power by force. Even if they are exiled at the moment, other Afghan voices legitimately claim to speak for the Afghan people.