Women of Afghanistan are at the forefront of the struggle against the Taliban
Khurshid Atlas
Women are at the forefront of the struggle against the Taliban since Thursday, 2 September. Rebellious women have staged several protests in Herat, Kabul, Balkh, Nimroz, and Ghor provinces confronting the Taliban.
"The educational, economic, and political deprivation of women is a sign of tyranny and violence, we cannot accept a system that excludes us and tramples our rights. We want to protect women's rights,” said a woman in Herat on Thursday, marking the beginning of a series of protests.
Women continue to bravely take to the streets, despite the Taliban responding violently to women's protests and beating journalists who cover them.
Today (September 7) as the Taliban announced their cabinet members in Kabul, men and women in Kabul, Herat and Ghor staged mass protests and chanted slogans for freedom.
In Kabul, where women-led protests began in several places, men and women took to the streets chanting "Freedom", "Long live the people of Afghanistan", "Death to the Taliban" and "Death to Pakistan” but were severely repressed by the Taliban.
Taliban fighters beat protesters with metal rods and fired shots into the air to disperse them. The Taliban also beat journalists and arrested at least 14 reporters.
The Taliban also detained a group of women protesters in the basement of a private bank for about an hour.
This evening, men and women took to the streets again in Herat to show their disgust with the Taliban regime. But the Taliban opened fire on a protest rally in Herat, killing two people and wounding four others.
Women in Ghor province also took to the streets to defend their rights in unison with women in other provinces.
While the Taliban today announced a male-only and mono-ethnic government that includes only reactionary and misogynist Mullahs and clerics, the people of Afghanistan, especially women, who are more determined than ever, took to the streets to fight for their rights and freedoms, and demonstrate their opposition to the Taliban rule.
Why are women leading the fight against the Taliban?
The ideology and actions of the Taliban run counter to the human aspirations of women. Relying on a dogmatic reading of religion, this fundamentalist group believes that the genitals determine the fate of humanity. According to this belief, every human being who is born a woman is doomed to live within the walls of the house and reproduce, and every human being who is born a man is inherently superior to the other half of humanity and has the right to control their lives.
Since the collapse of the puppet regime and the rise of the Taliban to power, half of Afghanistan's population has lost their identity and is forced to stay home. In some cases, the Taliban have even ordered female workers to send their male family members in their place — no matter how skilled and experienced these women are in doing the work, just being a woman has nullified all their achievements and efforts.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, had said at a press conference in Kabul that women should not return to work for now, because Taliban fighters do not know how to treat women! This statement by Zabahullah Mujahid has an ominous message for Afghanistan, especially women: We are facing men who have not seen any women other than their mothers (when they were children). Afghanistan is now run by a political group that sees the presence and activities of women as forbidden, abnormal, and dangerous. Now clerics and Mullahs who have never seen a woman in their lives govern all aspects of Afghanistan's population of 35 million. Undoubtedly, under the yoke of men who value humanity only as men, women are the target of oppression and exclusion and have no choice but to fight.
Most of the women who played an active social, political, cultural, and economic role in Afghanistan have now lost their status. The Taliban have effectively chained women, depriving them of basic human rights, including freedom of dress and education.
Some of these women managed to save their lives by leaving the country, but most of these women are still in Afghanistan, albeit in the corner of the house, shocked, worried, and anxious. These women have little to lose and are at the forefront of the struggle against the Taliban's male chauvinism and are a force for egalitarianism and their presence in the streets will shout the death of this fundamentalist regime.
On the other hand, the Taliban have neither the political legitimacy nor the ability to rule Afghanistan, of which more than 60 percent are young people. The Taliban is a reactionary and extremist force that opposes any sign of progress, including women's work and education, art, music, and does not hesitate to go to any length to demonstrate their ignorance. Should such a group, apart from how it gains external recognition through collusion, determine the future and destiny of more than 35 million human beings?
7 September 2021
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