As the Taliban remain undeterred on their decision to keep off girls from secondary education, the cad fundamentalist group has begun to reveal its “true colours,” said European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS). Beginning from depriving Afghans of basic human rights to undermining women in society, the list of violations has expedited in the seven months since the Taliban took over Afghanistan in mid-August, the Europe-based think tank said in a report published on April 1. By enforcing a “truly repressive regime,” the Taliban have begun to steer far from keeping its “lofty promises,” the report added.
“Possibly in recognition of the deep-rooted reluctance of world powers to engage with it, and of the ineffectiveness and inability of its patron State Pakistan to soften world opinion in the Taliban’s favour, the Taliban has in recent weeks begun to show its true colours,” EFSAS said.
“Whether the hardening of the Taliban’s attitude towards the legitimate and basic rights of the Afghan people, especially the women, is aimed at forcing the attention of the West towards it, or whether it is in reaction to the realisation that it would never be acceptable to the world in its present avatar is, however, not yet clear,” the experts noted.
Notably, the Taliban has promised to usher in a softer and more dignified version of their earlier regime that ruled in the 1990s. However, with the subsequent violation of human rights and suppression by curbing media independence, barring women from jobs and school within seven months of its ruling has exposed sooner rather than later its core aspects of the regression that had already been anticipated. Noting the living conditions of Afghans in the wake of a prolonged crisis, EFSAS urged the international community to focus attention on the war-torn nation.
Afghans selling kidneys to feed starving children
Listing the harrowing living conditions in the country, the experts claimed that Afghans are being forced to sell their kidneys for a “couple of thousand dollars” in an attempt to feed their famished children. On the other hand, women in the country have been “literally being reduced to rightless adjuncts.” EFSAS’ report came after the caretaker regime in Afghanistan banned girls’ education beyond 6 grade and barred women from travelling by air unaccompanied by a male relative. Further, men and women have been ordered to visit public parks only on separate days of the week that have been earmarked for each.
The aforementioned restrictions come in addition to the slew of measures slapped on women earlier. They have already been banned from many government jobs that they were otherwise fully qualified to do. Women have also been told what they can and cannot wear, apart from being prevented from travelling alone by road to other cities. Meanwhile, several women’s rights activists have been detained who attempted to stage protests against the illogical bans imposed on them. “…the Taliban has totally reversed two decades of gains made by Afghanistan’s women,” EFSAS said.
Taliban bars teenage girls from attending schools
The most damaging implication of the Taliban measures was when they barred teenage girls from availing of secondary education. The hardline group on March 23 announced it will reopen the school for “all students” only to later order that girls would be homeschooled, Taliban spokesman Inamullah Samangani had confirmed. The Taliban’s decision has shocked and saddened women and girls in Afghanistan, and several have pledged to protest against it.
“We did everything the Taliban asked in terms of Islamic dress and they promised that girls could go to school and now they have broken their promise. They have not been honest with us,” women’s rights activist Mahbouba Seraj said in a Tolo News interview.