The fall-out from President Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan continues. Recent reporting shows the dire situation Afghan women find themselves in at the hands of the Taliban.
The twenty-year war in Afghanistan ended very badly for Americans, not to mention the Afghans. Thirteen American military members were killed at the Kabul Airport in a terrorist attack as the bug-out was coming to an end. That tragic fact cannot be allowed to fade from memories of the withdrawal. Joe Biden was warned that the Taliban would rush in and take control of the country as soon as the Americans left. Biden chose to make his own decisions instead of listening to his military leadership and experts. That is why the withdrawal was a disaster. Biden knows nothing about leading military operations.
Afghanistan is under the control of the Taliban, as though 20 years of gradual improvement never happened. The Taliban filled the vacuum of leadership. It has imposed the draconian Islamic laws of the past with a vengeance. Women and girls are feeling the worst of the situation. The freedom of getting an education, to hold jobs, and the freedom of movement has been severely curtailed. Most women and girls have been restricted to remaining in their homes. They only leave home with a male family member as a chaperone.
Afghan women are required to wear hijabs in public, just like in the bad old days. Now the Taliban is bringing back public stoning and flogging of women for adultery. The Taliban can do as it pleases because there is no one to hold them accountable. The world is silent.
Safia Arefi, a lawyer and head of the Afghan human rights organization Women’s Window of Hope, said the announcement had condemned Afghan women to return to the darkest days of Taliban rule in the 1990s.
“With this announcement by the Taliban leader, a new chapter of private punishments has begun and Afghan women are experiencing the depths of loneliness,” Arefi said.
“Now, no one is standing beside them to save them from Taliban punishments. The international community has chosen to remain silent in the face of these violations of women’s rights.”
In an audio broadcast on the Taliban-controlled Radio Television Afghanistan, the Taliban’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, announced that they would be enforcing its interpretation of sharia law, which includes public flogging and stoning of women for adultery. “We will flog the women … we will stone them to death in public [for adultery].
“You may call it a violation of women’s rights when we publicly stone or flog them for committing adultery because they conflict with your democratic principles,” he said, adding: “[But] I represent Allah, and you represent Satan.”
So much for a kinder, gentler Taliban that the organization promised when it took control of Afghanistan in 2021. The Taliban is going full steam ahead.
Akhundzada justified the decision as a continuation of the Taliban’s battle against Western influences. “The Taliban’s work did not end with the takeover of Kabul, it has only just begun.”
There are 14 million women and girls in Afghanistan. Taking away their rights and protections is almost complete. The world is silent and the Taliban is emboldened to move forward.
Sahar Fetrat, an Afghan researcher at Human Rights Watch, said: “Two years ago, they didn’t have the courage they have today to vow stoning women to death in public; now they do.
“They tested their draconian policies one by one, and have reached this point because there is no one to hold them accountable for the abuses. Through the bodies of Afghan women, the Taliban demand and command moral and societal orders. We should all be warned that if not stopped, more and more will come.”
.Since taking control, the Taliban has dissolved the constitution that held Western backing, and it suspended its criminal and penal codes in favor of Sharia law. Female lawyers and judges have been banned. Many have been targeted for their work for the previous government.
In the past year, Taliban-appointed judges ordered 417 public floggings and executions. Of that, 57 were women, according to a research group monitoring human rights in Afghanistan, Afghan Witness. In February, the Taliban executed people in public at stadiums in Jawzjan and Ghazni provinces. The Taliban urged people to attend as a “lesson” but banned photography or filming. That is what the Taliban does – it controls people with fear and intimidation.
This didn’t have to happen. Joe Biden was hellbent to fully withdraw from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of September 11. That was a vanity move by Biden, not a true show of leadership. Biden is all ego, little brains. He likes to pretend he’s a big supporter of women but he has failed the women in Afghanistan.
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