With the Taliban promoting the upcoming United Nations-hosted Doha meeting this weekend as a sign of their rising legitimacy, human rights advocates are concerned that it could be a setback for women’s rights and further entrench the system of gender apartheid being forged by the Taliban.
Whatever the outcome from Doha, its main goal will be to establish a sort of system in which the Taliban form part of the core. The most optimistic scenario is that the Taliban will yield to some demands of the international community and the Afghan people around the inclusion of various groups in the country’s political structure.
Although this scenario seems very unlikely, if it does happen, it could facilitate the legitimization of the Taliban regime.
For political actors and the international community, establishing a legitimate and accepted government in Afghanistan would be a significant achievement that could end its current political isolation and allow for systematic engagement with the Taliban.
However, this scenario would be an absolute disaster for the women in Afghanistan.
Women activists are right not to trust any deal with the Taliban
The Taliban’s own words and actions over the past three and a half decades show the group has an uncompromising hostility towards women. Its disdain for women’s expansion beyond basic utility and servitude to male goals is deceptively swaddled in religious exhortations that are difficult to counter.
Time and again, we’ve witnessed the Taliban’s tactical retreats when asked to rectify its mistreatment of girls and women. But these have always proven to be deceptive ploys to distract until they return back to their baseline – enmity towards women.
The Taliban has not been deterred by any measure or warning issued by the international community since its takeover of Afghanistan in 2021 in regards to girls and women’s rightful autonomy as human beings. If anything, the group has only become more emboldened and more deliberate in subjugating women as a key strategy and goal.
Now that the Taliban are stuck in a legitimacy impasse, they might once again attempt to deceive the international community and political actors with some sort of retreat, promise or pledge on women, but it would only serve to pave the way for their recognition as Afghanistan’s authority before they subjugate women once again.
Legitimising the Taliban regime diplomatically, no matter what words are said to temper it, will tacitly signify an acceptance of the group’s malignant hostility towards women.
And what of the women fighting for the simple right to finish high school? To earn a wage for their families in respectable jobs? To be permitted to visit a national park? These humblest of demands will be utterly marginalized by Taliban legitimacy.
You do not have to dig deep into the three and a half decades of the Taliban presence in Afghanistan’s political, cultural, and social landscape to realise, unequivocally, that women’s rights are incompatible with Taliban governance.
Regardless of the reasons the Taliban offers for its rules, the fact remains: the group does not tolerate women enjoying any activity outside of the home.
If the international community crowns the Taliban rise to power with the legitimacy of proper channels of recognition, it will by default be agreeing that its power can be used to relegate women solely to roles of pregnancy, childbirth, child rearing, and serving men.
Improving the fate of women is separate from the power gains of political actors
Many political groups and actors agitating for more free Afghanistan are engaged in a struggle for interests that are inherently masculine and ethnic in nature. While these actors may occasionally mention women’s rights and demands in their discussions, there is no deep commitment or will to secure them.
Among the women’s rights movement, there are fears these political actors may withdraw from the fight against gender apartheid as soon as their relative power interests are secured.
For some parties, women’s rights are merely a tool to position themselves as different to the Taliban rather than any deep commitment to gender equality. Inviting women to forums and discussions is used as a sort of posturing to show they are, at least, not opposed to women’s presence in society. But they will refuse to commit to action for women’s interests and tactically postpone any timelines to reach a result.
What girls and women are experiencing in Afghanistan is not related to an ethnicity, religion, language, or region they hold. The mere fact of being biologically – and inescapably – female is the reason for the Taliban’s oppression.
The issue of women cannot be solved by ensuring national, regional, linguistic, or party rights. The Taliban simply do not accept that “woman” deserves equal standing in society as “man”. This is deeply and intricately intertwined in their ideology.
If another ethnic or religious group makes a deal with the Taliban, it will likely only be one that is dominated by men. This will also not change the fate of women. The realization of this could even strengthen the foundations and roots of gender apartheid currently at play in Afghanistan.
And in any such future scenario, if other male-dominant political forces join in power with the Taliban, women will still have to confront all of them.
The foremost priority for women in Afghanistan right now is not power negotiations with the Taliban. These are not even considerations that would ever be entertained by the Taliban.
The main issue for women is to combat the acceptance of gender apartheid in Afghanistan that denies their humanity and refuses to accept their presence in most of society’s endevours.
As long as the Taliban hold the core of power, women will not be accepted as human beings.
From this perspective, deviating from the fight against gender apartheid and women’s entry into political processes, even if facilitated by the United Nations, amounts to nothing but wasting energy and feeding the enemy’s goals.
Women in Afghanistan have limited strength and ability. This strength and ability must be focused on the main goal. This goal is nothing but the recognition of “gender apartheid” as a crime against humanity.
This essay is the first of a two-part series. The second part will discuss the importance of focusing on the fight against gender apartheid.
