It hasn't been a year since we pulled our forces out of Kabul, and the Taliban rulers are ordering women to cover themselves up from head to toe, with only an opening for their eyes. Their reactionary turn to oppress Afghan women dashes any slim hopes of both moderation and acceptance by the international community. It reinstates the dress code for women that existed during the Taliban's last reign from 1996 to 2001. The decree went out from the Orwellian-named Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which also added that women should stay at home unless they had "important" work outside the home.
There's a large measure of cruel hypocrisy involved, too, when it comes to the Taliban's broken promise to the international community not to close schools to girls past the 6th grade:
"Infuriating many Afghans is the knowledge that many of the Taliban of the younger generation, like Sirajuddin Haqqani, are educating their girls in Pakistan, while in Afghanistan women and girls have been targeted by their repressive edicts since taking power.
Girls have been banned from school beyond grade 6 in most of the country since the Taliban’s return. Universities opened earlier this year in much of the country, but since taking power the Taliban edicts have been erratic. While a handful of provinces continued to provide education to all, most provinces closed educational institutions for girls and women. [snip]
In the capital of Kabul private schools and universities have operated uninterrupted." (our emphasis)
There was a time when Americans looked upon these medieval religious zealots abroad and were grateful that we lived in another place (and century). With the surge of the "American Taliban" represented by book-banning extremist evangelicals and white Christian nationalists here, and the attack on women's reproductive rights and more by the right-wing Republican Supreme Court and Republican- controlled State legislatures, we may not be so grateful after all.
(photo: A. Majeed / AFP)
