Female protest against obscure Taliban restrictions International panorama at Caliber.Az

Mass women’s demonstrations by representatives of the Shia community have taken place in Afghanistan. They spoke out against the repression by the Taliban against the Shiites.

In Afghanistan, particularly in Kabul, secular women have protested in the past against bans on university education and other measures that restrict women’s rights. At that time, dozens of women were protesting. This time hundreds or thousands of women were walking the streets. During the commemoration of Ashura in Kabul, clashes took place between units of the Taliban and participants of the holiday march, during which fire was opened and several people were killed.

On March 8, the United Nations announced that Afghanistan had become the most oppressive country in the world under Taliban rule in the field of women’s rights. According to UNESCO, 80% of Afghan girls and women of school and university age do not attend those institutions. The Taliban dismissed all female civil servants, barred women from accessing public baths and parks and demanded that female clothing be strictly regulated. Women have also been banned from working for NGOs. The Taliban’s actions are basically aimed at eliminating women from public life.

The current protest was not so much in response to the violation of the rights of women, making up half of the population, as it was about the violation of the rights of the Shia. About 20% of Afghanistan’s 40 million population are Shiite Muslims. Women have taken to the streets because the Taliban are brutalizing male protesters, and even more so Shiite men, with women being treated somewhat gentler.

In this case, we are talking about intersecting majorities. Shia women, especially Shia Hazara women, are the most independent and educated in Afghanistan. It was precisely the Hazara women that had previously been most engaged in the protests against the expulsion of women from universities.

The problem is that, with regard to the Taliban, measures such as a peaceful protest, and especially a women’s protest, are useless. The concept of a peaceful protest does simply not exist in the Taliban’s worldview, much less so that of a women’s protest.

Generally speaking, it is not fully obvious in which geography the concept of peaceful protest is effective and where it could potentially have a major impact on public life, with the exception of a few examples. A peaceful protest may make sense in a small, more or less cohesive, more or less autonomous municipal community, where a group of residents takes to the streets with slogans demanding that sewage be repaired in a city block. In addition, the idea of peaceful protest makes sense on campus in the United States or in parts of India where the religious cult for Gandhi exists. Yet outside such areas, it most likely makes little to no sense. For most of humanity, going out on the streets with people demanding something or screaming doesn’t really make a big impact. We screamed, then each went our own way - so what?

The Taliban do not and cannot have such doctrines. Disputes are resolved either by warlords, tribal and religious authorities, or in the course of military operations. When the author of this article informed a friend of his with a Middle Eastern background on this matter, she replied the following: “It is important for women to be heard, so they go outside and shout”. Unfortunately, this has a downside - when a strong and cruel enemy hears you, things become much worse for you. By hearing you, the enemy will not make things any easier for you, but rather strike again. Therefore, Shiites, women, and all other Afghans, especially those who are currently starving at the hands of the government, will have to choose some other means in this fight for their rights and interests, only if they, of course, believe this to be necessary.

From the Taliban’s point of view, the concept of a peaceful women’s protest is, anyways, generally regarded as being total nonsense. This does not mean that, according to the Sunni Deobandi school of thought followed by the Taliban, women have no rights. Women do have certain rights, such as those relating to family relations. Yet a woman can hardly become a political subject in a society organized by the standards of the Taliban. She, they believe, can only appear on the street when accompanied by men from her family.

The Taliban’s reaction to a women’s peaceful protest may be about the same as a peasant’s reaction to the fact that his neighbour’s donkey broke out of his shed. Questions will not be addressed to the donkey, but rather to the neighbour who does not look after his shed and left it open. Male demonstrators will have to answer for their actions. The author of the article does not share such wild views, but merely portrays how peaceful female protests are being viewed through the eyes of the Taliban.