Despite a strong backlash from the global community including the Muslim world, the Taliban government in Afghanistan is hell-bent on barring women from education in one way or the other. There latest move to bar women from higher education is a case in point.

In their earlier steps, they had segregated the female education but in the latest step they have declared higher education a forbidden tree for women, which is against the teaching of Islam. That’s the Muslim countries mainly the Saudi Arab, Turkey, Qatar and majority of rest of the Muslim states have strongly lamented the Taliban Govt for their steps against female education.

This latest together with the earlier Taliban policies frame to segregate women from public life are going to have strong consequences for the Taliban government as the world community including the Muslim world are not accept  the Taliban stance on women’s issues. With the passage of time, the living conditions further deteriorate for Afghan women under the Taliban regime, who have been resorting to preventing women from being a part of public life and segregating them on almost every front.

Recently, they fired pepper spray at a group of women protesting in Kabul, demanding for provision of fundamental rights like work and education. In November, bodies of four female rights activists were found in controversial circumstances in the PD-1 of Afghanistan’s Mazar-e-Sharif province. 

Earlier, a Women’s rights activist Frozan Safi was shot dead in northern Afghanistan in November last year. She went missing and then her body was found a month later. Women who protest demand for their rights are subjected to whips and sticks.

Since coming into power in August last, the Taliban rulers have imposed severe restrictions on Afghan women, denying them space in the public domain. Few months back, a group of Afghan women disappeared after taking part in protests. They were later released after a lot of hue and cry from the human rights activists at home and aboard. The enforced segregation in offices and educational institutions has led many employers to fire women from work and they are also denied key public sector jobs.

The takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban has undoubtedly put women’s lives in perils and  their rights are threatened in several ways with nothing clear about their future roles in politics, sports, social and economic fields of life .

 Women are not only required to wear all covering burqa including covering of their face to comply with Taliban rules but they are also asked to be accompanied by a male relative when they step out of the house. Women’s sports have also been halted. While the Afghan football team members made their exit good to Pakistan, the female cricketers were not allowed to play. 

In September last year, the deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, was quoted to have told SBS News, “It isn’t “necessary” for women to play cricket because “they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this.”

The sports women including female cricketers are  in hiding since the Taliban take-over.

It may be mentioned here that ICC wants countries to have women’s teams to qualify for full membership and Afghanistan has achieved this  status in 2017.

To be very specific, though Taliban allowed women to continue their jobs within ‘limits’ which will be set by them, professions like sports, politics will be forbidden branches for women. Jobs like women drivers and women’s appointments at top on decision-making positions are still waiting response from the Taliban.

To be very specific, moves to restrict women to their homes and allow them to go out of their homes only when a male member follows them are very hard conditions for female to survive and on the outset it seems that life is going to be very tough for Afghan women, who are running from pillar to post to save their rights.

Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 23 2022

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