Taliban treatment of women

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Most of Afghanistan was ruled by a small religious group called the Taliban (or 'Taleban') from 1996 until the end of 2001. The name “Taliban” means “religious student”. During this rule, Afghanistan was one of the poorest nations in the world and suffered from constant low-level warfare, the civilian infrastructure was all but destroyed, a large number of people were killed or disabled by war or land mines, the average life expectancy was about 43, and there were human rights abuses against religious and racial minorities (especially the Shia muslims and Hazaras). The treatment of women in Afghanistan was often singled out for special attention by the Western world:

  • Women were prohibited from getting an education, though there were some secret schools which taught girls. The education of women became public after the fall of the Taliban.
  • Women were prohibited from getting a job except in healthcare (because it was segregated). If a husband left his wife, she would be hard-pressed to make a living.
  • Women were forced to cover up in a burqa when in public and to wear shoes that did not make noise. Violations of such laws brought on a public caning. Also, if a house had a woman inhabitant, the front windows of that house had to be painted over.
  • The Taliban were also accused of requiring women to stay at home and refusing to give women medical attention.
  • A woman was to stay home, playing outside was not allowed, and the friends she had were very limited.
  • Under the Taliban rule, a woman must not only remain home, but the windows of her house must be painted black

The Taliban claimed that their policies were favourable to women, but they made little attempt to promote a positive image of themselves and their policies outside of Afghanistan. Inside Afghanistan, they seem to have made more of an effort; for example, by crediting the creation of the Taliban to a desire by Mullah Omar to end the rape and abuses against women that were common place in the period before the Taliban, and by appealing to the idea that women needed extra protection during the period of fighting.

Men's treatment was equally harsh as so many were either killed outright or forcibly conscripted into the Taliban itself. For a man to be seen not enforcing the above rules on women could lead to death, as could activities such as playing football, listening to music or not having the correct length of beard.

Neither sex's treatment can be considered Islamic; such practises are not stipulated within the Qur'an and many rules were made up by the rulers as they went, sometimes with an out of context quote. Many were illiterate and of those who could read most had been raised with books supplied by the American CIA. As part of an anti-Soviet drive and to prepare an Afghan resistance against the expected (some would say provoked) Russian invasion, the books empthasised the most extreme and violent teaching of Islam ever in print.

Over $100 million was spent on producing and supplying such books, leaving the later American administrations with the task of replacing them. In the shorter term many such books were carefully edited with sticky tape, ink or removing whole pages as the desired result, war-mongering religious fanaticism, was out of control. The more effective and reliable part of the Afghan forces was nicknamed "The Base", a name that, in Arabic, is now the loose catch-all name given to Islamic militants (Al Qaeda).

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