Whilst any women are captives of the Taliban, none of us ever can be, or should feel, free
How much we take for granted…
If there is anything that women in our western society should treasure most, it is the personal freedom we enjoy.
Personal freedom…what can I say? That it is much more precious than gold or diamonds, goes without saying, for the alternative is bleak.
Freedom is a gift that we enjoy, but with it comes personal responsibility.
Yet we women in the western world tend to take it for granted.
The freedom to choose how we might do things:
- how to dress
- where to travel
- what and where to study
- whom to marry
- our sexual orientation
- to have children – or not
- elect to be silent
- stand for a cause
- or drive a car
For twenty years, following the 9/11 attack by Al-Qaeda, and with the help of agencies from other countries, Afghan women have garnered incredible courage, and inched slowly but surely towards freedoms that many of us don’t really think too much about.
To wear, or not to wear, makeup. To go dancing, learn to drive a car, attend university, and to choose a husband at a time that is appropriate, is cherished by them.
And even though, over the last twenty years, these freedoms have been fought for, and won, in relative terms, Afghan women have never assumed the freedom that we do.
They were still looking over their shoulders, still fighting for equality, and though they hadn’t quite made the grade, things were changing for the better, for them, until recently.
When we speak of freedom, what exactly do we mean?
Perhaps thinking of its antithesis is a better way of looking at it.
Imagine not being able to go out alone, as a female.
Imagine not being able to plan ahead.
Imagine, even if you could, not knowing with certainty that you could follow through with plans.
Imagine not being able to uphold and stand by your beliefs.
Imagine the slavery of living your life in this uncertainty.
As I watched Afghan people clamber onto the American military aircraft this morning, some falling as the plane took off, I prayed quietly for them.
Could I even get close to understanding their desperation?
Of course the answer is no. None of us westerners can.
Where is the fairness in life when some of us are born into cultures where freedom to speak and to act, to pursue dreams, to make decisions for ourselves, to thumb our proverbial noses at establishments, are presumed.
Whilst others live in darkness.
That the spot on earth where you are born, and the culture that wraps around you, is the determinant of your hopes and dreams, is sad beyond belief.
That the Taliban has returned to Afghanistan is undoubtedly catastrophic for women. Sure, they are promising much, but old habits, old cultures, and attitudes die hard. We all understand this.
Afghani women are fearful. They know that their freedom is now but one step away from extinction, when the chips are down, and there is no room for backpedalling.
An insider’s view
Lynsey Addario, an American photographic journalist, speaks of the hard road travelled by Afghani women in their fight for freedom. She states:
‘One morning in the summer of 1999, Shukriya Barakzai woke up feeling dizzy and feverish. According to the Taliban’s rules, she needed a Maharram, a male guardian, in order to leave home to visit the doctor. Her husband was at work, and she had no sons. So she shaved her 2-year-old daughter’s head, dressed her in boys’ clothing to pass her off as a guardian, and slipped on a burka. Its blue folds hid her fingertips, painted red in violation of the Taliban’s ban on nail polish. She asked her neighbor, another woman, to walk with her to the doctor in central Kabul. Around 4:30 p.m. they left the doctor’s office with a prescription. They were heading toward the pharmacy when a truckload of Taliban militants from the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice pulled up beside them. The men regularly drove around Kabul in pickup trucks, looking for Afghans to publicly shame and punish for violating their moral code.
‘The men jumped out of the truck and started whipping Barakzai with a rubber cable until she fell over, then continued whipping her. When they finished, she stood up, crying. She was shocked and humiliated. She had never been beaten before.
‘”Are you familiar with something we call sadism?” Barakzai asked me when we spoke recently. “Like they don’t know why, but they are just trying to beat you, harm you, disrespect you. This is now [what] they enjoy. Even they don’t know the reason.”’
Such sadistic behaviour is modelled, though, as Barakzai said, not necessarily understood. But what we can all imagine, is that Barakzai would never ever take a risk again, the trauma being a constant reminder that the next punishment would be even worse.
Yet she embraced her fears
What it did instead was to make her more determined than ever to stand up to cruelty and subjugation.
With courage in both hands she became an activist, and ‘organized underground classes for girls at the sprawling apartment complex where she and her family lived, home to some 45 families. Barakzai would go on to help draft Afghanistan’s constitution and serve two terms in Parliament.’
Had she not been beaten, had she not been humiliated, she might never have envisioned her calling.
‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.’
Might this be about to change?
Could women be under renewed threat of sexual slavery once more?
‘A Taliban directive in July asked local religious leaders to provide them with a list of girls over 15 and widows under 45 for ‘marriage’ with Taliban fighters.
‘The increasing onslaught of the Taliban in Afghanistan that includes their move to control women, has generated fear.
‘One of the first moves of the Taliban after taking swift control of over large parts of the country has been to issue a diktat for Afghan women. Minimal resistance and lack of international pressure has coupled to intensify their violence.’
One can only imagine the abject fear of the Afghani women. To be transported back to the dark ages, to learn how to be subservient, and to put behind them, the benefits of education and freedom, is hell indeed.
From all we read in the media, world leaders are truly concerned about how all this will play out.
In this article many leaders express their outrage at what they see as a brutal, frightening dictatorship, yet the Taliban insists they want to work on the world stage with world leaders.
The whole world will be watching.
The following two stories make interesting reading on the same issue.
https://conqueringcognitions.medium.com/i-cant-find-the-right-words-a93ef2484740
