Dark Age Returns

Taliban’s new penal code re-imposes total gender apartheid on Afghan women

To the international community’s utter indifference, Taliban have created a horror chamber for Afghan women. In the latest – after barring women from school & work, restricting their movement and access to health, erasing women from public life – Kabul issued a new penal code with medieval provisions. The new code enshrines gender apartheid where women are treated like property and their husbands and male relatives are allowed to physically punish them, “provided this doesn’t cause broken bones or open wounds”.

This shows Taliban 2.0 are as brutish as their earlier avatar. At the same time, they are also trying to attract foreign investments. Decades of war have ravaged Afghan economy. True, Afghan economy grew by 4.3% last year. But this was a temporary boost due to 2mn returning refugees from Pakistan and Iran. Taliban know they are vulnerable to internal pressures sans long-term economic growth. Hence their attempt to promote tourism by inviting YouTubers to Afghanistan. But there’s no way a vibrant tourism industry can be built without women. Just like there can’t be an effective healthcare sector without women doctors, or quality education without girls and women teachers.

But Taliban only want to show minimal signs of flexibility – like keeping the Afghan men’s cricket team going – to keep the international community interested, while sticking to their obscurantist ideology. Sure, Taliban aren’t a monolith. There are different factions vying for influence. But the core leadership headed by supreme leader Mullah Akhundzada has stamped its regressive views on Taliban govt. The strategy of treating women as sub-human while showing some signs of economic openness to foreigners won’t work. There cannot be any progress without women. Saudi Arabia under MBS has come to this realisation, making changes to its guardianship laws and boosting women’s economic participation. But it will take decades to fully dismantle discriminatory patriarchal structures. For, even in liberal democracies the fight to shatter glass ceilings for women continues. Taliban, by sanctioning mistreatment of Afghan women, are again taking Afghanistan to a dark place.                

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