Women have suffered disproportionately under the military rule of the Taliban. Since 1994, the Taliban regime has terrorised the people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls, imposing harsh decrees forbidding women from leaving their homes unaccompanied by a close male relative, requiring women to wear the restrictive burqa clothing, prohibiting women from going to school (in or out of the home), seeing male doctors or working most jobs outside the home. Women have been beaten, tortured and killed for violating Taliban decrees.
At the beginning of June the Taliban regime announced that it will impose its extreme, fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law on foreigners in Afghanistan, even going so far as to require foreigners to sign an agreement to obey Islamic laws before entering the country.
All persons in Afghanistan must not drink alcohol, eat pork, listen to loud music, or have "inappropriate contact" with members of the opposite sex. Women are prohibited from driving. Failure to comply will result in expulsion from Afghanistan or three days to one month of jail time. "Illegal sexual relations" will be punished according to Islamic law, which, under the Taliban, has included severe beatings and even death. Most Muslim nations, except Saudi Arabia and now Afghanistan, allow non-Muslims exemptions from compliance with the right-wing fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic law.
The Taliban has also issued a decree ordering Hindus to wear a yellow identification badge. The badges have been likened to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. The badge is the most recent of the Taliban militia's extreme and oppressive decrees.
The Taliban's religious police, directed by the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, are responsible for patrolling the streets, shops, and hospitals of the Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan (about 90% of the country). They are empowered to jail a man for having a beard smaller than his fist, lash a woman for showing bare skin, or close a shop if the owner fails to attend mosque five times a day.
Women are barred from working outside the home, except in hospitals. Recently, the Taliban raided a hospital where men and women were working because they dined in the same cafeteria (separated by a curtain). Television, independent radio, and musical instruments are also banned.
A recent survey of Afghan men and women, however, found that the Taliban regime's medieval restrictions on women's civil rights have little popular support. Women's Health and Human Rights in Afghanistan: A Population Based Assessment, is the first study to systematically assess human rights concerns of a large section of the Afghan population. It was undertaken by Physicians for Human Rights (PHR).
The study found that the women surveyed in areas controlled by the Taliban "almost unanimously expressed that the Taliban had made their life 'much worse', attributing their declining mental and physical health to Taliban policies". When the women living under the Taliban are compared to women living in non-Taliban controlled areas, they report significantly worse physical and mental health, including much higher rates of major depression and suicide.
Another significant outcome of the survey is the Afghan people's disagreement with the Taliban regime's claims that the restrictions they have imposed on women are dictated by Islamic law. More than 80% of the men and women surveyed believe that the teachings of Islam do not restrict women's human rights.
Based on these findings, the PHR report calls for the end of the "systematic discrimination against women" by the Taliban. Among its other recommendations, PHR calls for the international community to increase humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, while also reporting that more than a third of the women surveyed said that Taliban policies restricted their access to humanitarian assistance.
[From Feminist Majority Foundation. Visit their web site at <http://www.feminist.org>.]