Consequences of conflict in Afghanistan continues....

With the Soviet withdrawal, factional fighting started among the various Mujahideen groups (1992-94) and there were reported incidents of massacres of defenseless women in their homes, brutal beating, rapes, forcible taking over as wives or sold into prostitution. Several women had to commit suicide and several others were stoned to death. Hundreds of thousands fled their homes in terror, only to suffer further abuses during their flight or in refugee camps. They were excluded from the right to association, freedom of expression and employment and were also prevented from attending health and family planning courses organized by the NGOs. The Mujahideen who considered their work as un-Islamic particularly threatened educated and professional women.

The Taleban movement in Afghanistan can be ‘charitably’ regarded as the least feminist movement in the world. Their policies of gender apartheid were justified by their supporters on account of lawlessness and their concern for security of women grossly violated during the previous period of Mujahideen rule.

However, their objective was to establish an Islamic state based on the Shari’a. Just after coming to power, the Taleban issued a set of decrees relating to women after the capture of Kabul. They justified these decrees and saw them consistent with Islam, which was regarded as a rescuing religion. They further created the religious police (Munkrat) who were given the responsibility to ‘struggle against any social problems’. The women in Afghanistan became particularly invisible after the advent of the Taleban to power and the impact of Taleban-imposed restrictions was most severely felt in the cities where women had enjoyed relatively greater freedom. Women were banned from schools and universities, and professional as well as non-professional women were banned from working. This ban on employment severely affected the war widows who were the sole breadwinners for their families. Women had to appear in a burqa outside their homes and all this resulted in their lack of access to medical service. The Taleban religious police meted of punishment immediately for violation of these rules. Reports of lashing on the streets and public humiliation became common.

To be continued.......