How the Taliban is rolling back the freedoms of the past 20 years
Supreme leader has now announced that all women must cover their faces in public
In Afghanistan, the Taliban’s retrograde and “inhumane” assault on women’s rights is gathering pace, said Hasht-e Subh Daily (Kabul). Women have already been forced out of most workplaces since the Islamist group returned to power in August. They can no longer travel on planes or by taxi without a male escort; in March, the Taliban reversed a pledge to reopen secondary schools for girls.
And last week its supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, went further, announcing that all women must cover their faces in public, ideally with the head-to-toe burqa. Those who don’t could face jail; government employees will be fired on the spot. Ours is now the only country in the world that forces women to cover themselves entirely in public, a decree based on “their harsh reading” of Islam. Our nation is “broken and sick”. Yet the Taliban is more interested in legislating about “the length of men’s beards and women’s robes” than in facing its problems.
When it first regained power, the Taliban sought to present a more enlightened face to the world, said Rafia Zakaria in Dawn (Karachi). This “Taliban-lite” pledged to honour women’s rights, and forgive those who fought against them. Yet now, with the country isolated abroad and facing a humanitarian crisis caused by sanctions and the withdrawal of foreign aid, its leaders seem to have calculated “that it is better to do what they want and be who they are”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The regime faces vast problems, agreed Tolo News (Kabul). Its rival Islamic State terror group has carried out a series of deadly attacks in Afghanistan in recent weeks; and the opposition National Resistance Front claims it is regaining territory in parts of the northeast.
Afghans are paying a high price for the Taliban’s incompetence and cruelty, said Sima Samar in Der Spiegel (Hamburg). Hunger is “everywhere”; families are being forced to sell children into marriage just to survive. The burqa decree will perpetuate the imbalance of power between women and men; despite the risks, women’s rights activists protested the decision in Kabul.
The international community seems powerless to influence the regime, said Lynne O’Donnell in Foreign Policy (Washington). Following March’s schooling decision, the World Bank suspended $600m of aid earmarked for education, health and agriculture in Afghanistan. But the Taliban “haven’t budged”. The burqa edict suggests the group is determined to roll back the freedoms enjoyed by millions of Afghans over the past 20 years, and to treat women’s bodies as “the property of the state”.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'Virtual prisons': how tech could let offenders serve time at home
Under The Radar New technology offers opportunities to address the jails crisis but does it 'miss the point'?
By Chas Newkey-Burden, The Week UK Published
-
The Week contest: Airport goodbyes
Puzzles and Quizzes
By The Week US Published
-
'We shouldn't be surprised that crypto is back'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
Has the Taliban banned women from speaking?
Today's Big Question 'Rambling' message about 'bizarre' restriction joins series of recent decrees that amount to silencing of Afghanistan's women
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Cuba's energy crisis
The Explainer Already beset by a host of issues, the island nation is struggling with nationwide blackouts
By Rebekah Evans, The Week UK Published
-
Did the Covid virus leak from a lab?
The Explainer Once dismissed as a conspiracy theory, the idea that Covid-19 originated in a virology lab in Wuhan now has many adherents
By The Week UK Published
-
Exodus: the desperate rush to get out of Lebanon
Talking Point As the Israel-Hezbollah conflict escalates Lebanon faces an 'unprecedented' refugee crisis
By The Week UK Published
-
A storm of lies: the politics of hurricane season
Talking Point Trump and allies weaponise hurricane season, falsely accusing Biden-Harris administration of misusing relief funds
By The Week UK Published
-
The death of Hassan Nasrallah
In the Spotlight The killing of Hezbollah's leader is 'seismic event' in the conflict igniting in the Middle East
By The Week UK Published
-
Politicising the judiciary: Mexico's radical reform
Talking Points Is controversial move towards elected judges an antidote to corruption in the courts or a 'coup d'état' for the ruling party?
By The Week UK Published
-
Putin's fixation with shamans
Under the Radar Secretive Russian leader, said to be fascinated with occult and pagan rituals, allegedly asked for blessing over nuclear weapons
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published