Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s negation of the new power dispensation in Afghanistan, at the SCO meet, is clear and unequivocal when he said that the change of power in Afghanistan was not inclusive and it happened without negotiation. The Prime Minister was right to call a word of caution to the international community to ensure that the Afghan soil is not used to spread terrorism.
He had also raised questions over acceptance of the new system as the representatives of women, minorities and other sections of the Afghan society as they did not get representation in the government.
The apprehensions expressed by one and all, barring a few of Afghanistan’s neighbours like Pakistan, China and in a limited way Iran with their vested interests, are coming true with each passing day.
Just two days back, a new rider was issued for the women employees in the capital city government that they should stay home and they need not to come to work. Only those allowed to work who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.
The decision to prevent most female city workers from returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises by some that they would be tolerant and inclusive. In their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban had barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.
In recent days, the new Taliban government issued several decrees rolling back the rights of girls and women. It told female middle- and high school students that they could not return to school for the time being, while boys in those grades resumed studies this weekend. Female university students were informed that studies would take place in gender-segregated settings from now on, and that they must abide by a strict Islamic dress code.
Under the US-backed government deposed by the Taliban, university studies had been co-ed, for the most part. On Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.
On Sunday itself, just over a dozen women staged a protest outside the ministry, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. A society in which women are not active is a dead society, one sign read. Why are they (the Taliban) taking our rights? said one of the protesters, 30-year-old Basira Tawana. ‘We are here for our rights and the rights of our daughters.’
The protest lasted for about 10 minutes. After a short verbal confrontation with a man, the women got into cars and left, as Taliban in two cars observed from nearby. Over the past months, Taliban fighters had broken up several women’s protests by force. All human beings have equal rights and Afghan rulers should understand this.
The big question as to how the United States led NATO countries surrendered so easily without securing the human rights of the women and minorities in Afghanistan before sealing a deal with Taliban when the world knew their past track record. Why the US and western nations, who have been all along posing as votaries of human rights and religious freedom, are silent on these worst developments at a place where they had spilled intense blood and drained billions of dollars.
Taliban should realise that they would never get any political acceptance and diplomatic legitimacy till they behave like barbarians and attempt archaic rule in their own native land. The sooner they get civilised the better it would be for them and the humanity across.
