Afghan women took to the streets to demand their rights be fulfilled Photo EWN
Afghanistan – It has been one year since the Taliban took over Afghanistan with promises to give women their rights. Two days ago Afghan women took to the streets of Kabul in frustration calling on the Taliban to fulfil their promises.
The march, which consisted of about 40 women, was quickly broken up by the Taliban who fired shots into the air. The protestors’ main calls were for the Taliban to give them back their jobs and open schools for women. This was only made clearer as they marched through the streets chanting “bread, work and freedom”.
The protest revealed a few things about the Taliban and Afghan women
The protest spoke volumes about how courageous, tough and resilient the Afghan women are, said Dr. Yvonne Ridley, UK based author and journalist. It also showed things being carried out in Afghanistan are not meeting the approval of the women.
While the response by the Taliban was harsh, it is no way close to the harshness the West experiences, said Ridley. This goes against the narrative the media has been pushing for years about the Taliban.
“How many times in the West have we seen tear gas being fired, where people have been arrested. Last year during a vigil in London the Metropolitan police behaviour was disgraceful. They broke up a peaceful protest, a vigil for a murdered woman. They arrested women, pushed them down to the ground. It wasn’t ideal what the Taliban did but it could have been worse. After all, we are constantly told this is a brutal regime that cracks down on women. Their handling of women didn’t tell that story.”
The fact that women can demonstrate their concerns in public is a good sign, said Ridley. Their concerns are valid since most of the promises have not come to pass.
SMread: Marikana widow – slim hope justice for husband’s murder will be served 10 years on
The Taliban when it comes to the rights of women
While the Taliban haven’t fulfilled all their promises when it comes to women they have made some progress, said Ridley. For starters, they have abolished the forced marriages which took place during the 20 year occupation.
While there are those who claim the Taliban have taken things backwards for all women, Ridley believes this is far from the truth. While visiting the country she managed to travel to the rural areas, places most journalists don’t go to, without any armed forces. It was there she learnt those women are grateful for the Taliban coming into power.
“I could not meet a single woman who had not been impacted in a very negative way by the occupation. Her only contact with the Americans or British were having their homes raided at two or in the morning. Security dogs going through their homes. Husband, sons, brothers disappearing. Homes being shelled.”
The women in the rural areas are grateful to the Taliban for putting an end to the war. Their view of the Taliban is quite different to how the “privileged” Afghan women in Kabul view the Taliban, said Ridley.
The reason for the slow changes
It takes some time for a government to bring about change and even a longer time when a country is being run under the harsh conditions that have been placed on Afghanistan. With the banks having been frozen, it’s impossible to get cash which makes things extremely difficult, said Ridley. One can’t even shop online as this is also restricted.
“I tried to do some shopping online while I was there and I couldn’t do that. Even though I have an account in the UK which functions perfectly well. You cannot make financial transactions electronically. How can you run a government with those restrictions? It’s like sending someone to play cricket with one arm behind their back and a ball and chain around their leg.”
Ridley is confident the Taliban can govern without corruption and will function much better if their assets were not frozen. They have a zero tolerance policy towards corruption.
“As a result of that alone (zero tolerance to corruption) the Afghani currency is performing better than the Pakistan Rupee and the Indian Rupee. This is quite interesting and something that people aren’t talking about.”
SMread: Hawks arrest suspected July unrest instigators
Afghanistan is sitting on a treasure that can help bring change faster
What could help bring change faster is the discovery of a huge deposit of lithium in the country. There is said to be $3 trillion worth of lithium that could be mined, said Ridley. This was discovered when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan but was kept a secret. She also believes thesd reserves of lithium could be why Afghanistan is being sanctioned.
“In 2004 during the US occupation years, the geologist discovered this. Most of it was in Taliban occupied territory. I think that the freezing of assets has nothing to do with women’s rights but everything to do with how we can get our hands on the world’s biggest reserves of lithium.”
Ridley believes the challenges the Taliban are facing makes it difficult to create change quickly. While they haven’t fulfilled all their promises, they still are moving forward and helping women. Those on the outskirts are thankful for the Taliban but to win everyone over they need to get schools running again and women back into the workforce.
