Women, victims of inequality policies in Taliban Afghanistan

Euskaraz irakurri: Emakumeak, desberdintasun-politiken biktima Afganistans

On August 15, 2021, Afghanistan turned back the clock 20 years. Two decades after his overthrow at the hands of US-led foreign forces, the taliban regained power with hardly any resistance began a political and social retreat that the international community has already failed to stop remotely.

the Taliban pledged to respect the rights acquired by women after the overthrow of the Islamic emirate in 2001. A year later it is already clear that all these commitments have fallen on deaf ears and UN Women accuses current rulers of “carefully” building “inequality policies” that marginalize half the population.

The executive director of this agency, Sima Bahous, assures that in “just a few months” the radicals have overthrown decades of progress, something that groups of women who continue to take to the streets to demand their rights despite threats from the current rulers. . On Saturday, the Taliban dispersed a protest in Kabul involving some 40 women.

women have suffered setbacks in the workplacebut also in education, to the point that Afghanistan today is the only country in the world that prevents girls from going to secondary education. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), 3.4 million girls and adolescents are excluded from the education system.

The Taliban have also issued orders forcing women to cover their faces in public or to always move under the supervision of a male ‘guardian’, which could lead to a greater situation of violence and the inability of female victims of gender-based violence from within. on the basis of violence to ask for help.

The United Nations fears that this will also lead to an increase in forced marriages, in a context where the proportion of girls getting married before the age of 18 is already around 28%.

Without the full participation of women, he warns, “there are few opportunities to achieve lasting peace, stability and economic development”, in a context where more than 24 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian assistance. Who is in Afghanistan considered one of the greatest crises in the world.

97% of Afghans live in poverty and for most families, 90% of income goes to food, according to United Nations data; Therefore, there is no margin for contingencies or excesses in a context also characterized by supply problems and the increase in commodities.

Human rights violations

A report published in July by the UN mission in Afghanistan also revealed the pattern of human rights violations, including abuses of all kinds, from torture to arbitrary arrests, including extrajudicial killings. One of the main targets of the repression is people associated with the deposed government and its security forces.

Amnesty International agrees with this reading, deploring in its latest report that “all hope for change has vanished as the Taliban try to rule through repression and with total impunity.”

In its report published Monday entitled “The Taliban Law: A Year of Violence, Impunity and False Promises,” Amnesty highlights “the egregious violations” committed over the past year, as well as the impunity they enjoy to protect those who oppose it. regime, to torture, to kill and to make them disappear.

“A year ago, the Taliban made a public commitment to protect and promote human rights. But the speed with which they are breaking down 20 years of progress on freedoms is impressive,” said Amnesty International’s regional director for South Asia. Yamini. misra.

In that sense, he lamented that “all hope for change has vanished as the Taliban attempt to rule through repression and with total impunity”, as evidenced by “arbitrary arrests, torture, disappearances and summary executions”.

The return of the Taliban is, in turn, a major setback for women and girls, who have been deprived of their rights after two decades of progress. Now “they face a bleak future, deprived of education and the opportunity to participate in public life,” he denounced.