Who will talk about Afghanistan’s Mahsa Amini? Since the beginning of time, social constructs have been heavily tilted against this gender. The world will blatantly refute their agony, surpassing all levels of hypocrisy.
The political crisis in Afghanistan has overrun almost all aspects of human life. The landlocked country is marred by diminishing economic confidence and human rights violations. By mid-2022, two-thirds of Afghan households reportedly could not afford food and other basic non-food items, as per the latest World Bank Report.
The United Nations (UN) experts believe since the Taliban’s takeover of the landlocked country, Afghan women’s situation has regressed to the pre-2002 period. In two decades, it seems nothing has changed for this rugged terrain. After the US and NATO troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the formidable group known as the Taliban took over the country and its people. Donning Pakol caps, and brandishing foreign-made guns, they are sitting in Parliament and have been passing core conservative laws that are badly affecting Afghan women.
The hardliners somehow learnt to operate new firearms, military drones, and other weapons left by the fleeing forces in August 2021. And these are being used to openly scare the civilians in the streets, particularly Afghan women. The situation of women in the Central Asian country is appalling to the point that they are left to fend for themselves; physical abuse, sexual violence, psychological drudgery, almost no medical aid, no food, no safety and zero representation is what makes them stand out as the suffering class. They are not even on the backseat lest we forget that these are only the available statistics compiled by the UN rapporteurs. If we delve deeper, we will find that for women even living is denied.
Women in Afghanistan and Iran vs Women elsewhere
But who will talk about Afghanistan’s Mahsa Amini? Since the beginning of time, social constructs have been heavily tilted against this gender. The world will blatantly refute their agony, surpassing all levels of hypocrisy; when it’s about women, they are seen as a moot court entity. Women are born with an in-built armour against the harshness of this world. Be it the women in West Asia or Central Asia or be it the women in Europe and elsewhere, life has been tougher for all of them but in different ways.
Iran’s civil disobedience movement against the country’s Gasht-e-Ershad (morality police) or protests to end the Islamic regime express disregard for male-dominated spheres. While Iranian women are standing their ground, Afghan women, on the other hand, are lagging far behind. They are being traumatised by Taliban hardliners and climate change-induced erratic seasons. Iran’s morality police was established to supervise the male version of modesty, dare to show even a few hair strands out of the hijab and you shall be detained; a few hundred lashes could be another recourse. Even for their release, a male’s assurance is what they ask for. In Iran, the hijab became mandatory for women in 1983. But if we look at the Sharia law, it mentions ‘modest dressing’ for both men and women. So, the persistent harassment and torture of women in the name of Sharia are directly opposite of what the Sharia says.
The connivance of the clerics in Iran has always foiled reformists’ attempts to introduce any major reforms. However, Mahsa Amini’s death reignited the debate over women’s rights in Iran and elsewhere. As far as human rights are concerned, women are always given the last rung of the ladder, the least share of the pie, be it women on this side or that side of the world.
Taking a cue from the West won’t help much either. The greater share of the problem lies in the backlash against women-led movements across the globe. One of the longest fights, led by women, in the US for their health and constitutional equality and economic justice is just one page in the book of inequality. In the UK, the history of women’s rights goes back to the times of Jane Austen when woman authors couldn’t publish their work in their own names. The impermanence attributed to the other gender’s plight is what’s at stake here.
Optics versus reality
The Afghanistan and Taliban optics do not rest only on the hardliners — they are a people who have been through a lot when it comes to power shifts, invasions and changes. The NATO allies and partner countries were present in Afghanistan for 20 years under a United Nations Security Council mandate. The constant foreign presence on their soil irked the Pashtun fundamentalist group, broadly known as the Taliban, which was formed in the early 1990s. The hardliner guerrilla fighters resisted the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan during 1979-89 with the clandestine backing of the CIA. The intermittent power shifts disturbed the balance of power for the Afghans and consequently also affected world politics. Thus, the optics in Afghanistan have always been about the externalities of what’s wrong but the intricacies like women’s rights, and civil and political rights go unnoticed.
On the same note, Iran too saw regime changes that affected all but women the most. The extremists on both sides —West-backed regimes against the Khamenei-led regime— kept propagating their beliefs while ignoring the greater good of their own people. And today’s Iranian women’s slogan speaks about the same, basics of all —Jin, Jiyan, Azadi— which they feel deprived of. The notoriety of the West and the extremism of Khamenei or the Taliban will not suffice their cause. To be succinct, the cause of women, their rights and their existence is being sandwiched between these two. Certainly, it is no utopia for a woman to be able to make her own choices when it comes to clothing and other such matters.
Source: Outlook Weekender
