The Taliban-ruled Afghanistan is under active sonar of global human rights organizations together with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and other NGOs because there is a stark contrast in opportunities available to both boys and girls in the country under the Taliban regime. According to the details, boys can roam freely and go to school, get an education, and look for well-paying jobs, while girls do not enjoy such luxuries, can’t move without a male escort, hide their schooling, can’t attend universities, and often work in low-income jobs like carpet weaving. Gender inequalities and other social challenges that existed in Afghanistan for centuries have significantly worsened with the emergence of the Taliban. These challenges, including poverty and unemployment, affect over 90% of Afghanistan’s population and also have a profound impact on girls. Meanwhile, the ban on girls’ education and the closure of girls’ schools under the rule of the Taliban administration, has not only reduced the chances for girls’ higher education and employment but seriously restricted the scope for a better future, social and economic independence for Afghan female population which has always been a dream of each Afghan mother for her daughter throughout the past.
Historically, gender inequality and restriction on education, movement as well as employment is not a new phenomenon in traditionally conservative Afghan society but these restrictions have been officially endorsed and the situation bitterly worsened after the hardline Taliban took control of the country almost two years ago. Since then, women and girls have experienced severe state-imposed discrimination that amounts to gender prosecution and attracted worldwide criticism from human rights organizations and the international community at large. During this era, the heart-wrenching stories of Afghan mothers resound widely whose daughters are failing to envision high dreams for their families mainly due to a ban on education and a lack of resources to compete in this challenging world. Undoubtedly, Afghan girls and women are talented, and courageous and owe a long-held quest to create a better future for them, but failing to achieve their goals due to overwhelming poverty, unemployment and grave economic challenges. So far, hundreds of thousands of Afghan women are compelled to do some kind of job, domestic labour or farming to feed their children as a large number of Afghans have been killed in the decades-long conflict in that country.
The imposition of restrictions by the Afghan interim rulers, prompted worldwide criticism of their policies while several local human rights activists and woman leaders protested the conservative policies of the Taliban leaders, staged demonstrations or lobbied against the government that met a harsh reaction from the government in the shape of arrest/ imprisonment or abduction of women leaders, journalist and critics of the incumbent Afghan rulers. Apparently, the Taliban rulers have been continuing to intensify their restrictions on civil society, particularly by silencing the voices of women and girls, resulting in a disturbing impact on the government as well as on the masses.
Realistically, women are an important part of any society and play a pivotal role in nation-building if they are provided with a conducive environment, moral support and finances. Afghan women had always worked shoulder to shoulder with their male colleagues during the wars and other crucial of their history in the past. Presently, more than half of the country’s population has become ineffective and added to the economic burden of their male family members as well as the government. It is high time the Afghan rulers empower their women population by providing them with a better environment and enabling them to participate in education and business activities while maintaining all religious norms and Afghan social tradition, so this important segment of the Afghan society could play its due role in dearly needed nation-building and social development.
