[Column] Burqa didn't come back just because of Taliban

Posted on : 2021-09-09 17:37 KST Modified on : 2021-09-09 17:37 KST
Calling on the Taliban to improve women’s rights is hardly the only way to provide women in rural areas with meaningful help
Students attend class at Avicenna University in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. (AFP/Yonhap News)
Students attend class at Avicenna University in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday. (AFP/Yonhap News)

Women’s rights in Afghanistan were a problem even before the rise of the Taliban.

The socialist government that was established in 1978 announced land reforms, empowered women to choose their marriage partner, abolished dowries, and extended mandatory public education to women to fight illiteracy.

The socialists sought to upend the social order in the feudal tribes in Afghanistan’s rural areas, where more than 90% of the population lives. The land reforms and expansion of women’s rights provoked fierce resistance not only from the vested interests in tribal society but from ordinary members of those tribes, ultimately leading to an uprising.

The US and Pakistan immediately stepped in to aid the uprising and, when the socialist government was endangered, the Soviet Union made a military intervention as well. In short, expanding women’s rights has been one of the causes of the wars in Afghanistan that lasted for 43 years.

The international community concentrated on the Islamic jihad, or holy war, unfolding against the Soviets — the foreign invaders — without paying any attention to women’s rights or land reform.

But women enjoyed remarkable advances under the socialist government, which remained in power until 1992. When the Taliban entered Kabul in 1996, women represented 40% of doctors, 60% of public servants, and 70% of professors. The problem was that women’s progress was limited to Kabul and other major cities that were under the control of the socialist government.

Afghanistan has long been bifurcated between the capital of Kabul, where the central government exerts direct control, and the rural regions, where the tribes’ feudal society holds sway. The wars have further exacerbated the division and disparity between urban and rural areas.

Women enjoyed rapid progress and the benefits of modernization in the major cities governed by the socialist regime, but the feudal order persisted in rural areas wracked by war and dominated by the mujahideen.

The urban-rural gap grew even wider after the US’ invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. The US spent hundreds of billions of dollars on development aid, but all that money went to the big cities and surrounding areas under American control.

But for people living in war-torn rural areas, the slogans and reforms proclaimed by the Soviets and the Americans actually became the objects of hatred.

Over the past 43 years, the most important thing for women in rural areas was finding a way for their families to survive strafing runs by Soviet Mi-24D helicopter gunships; sexual assault, kidnapping, sex trafficking, and toll-collecting by local warlords; and drone attacks by the US military.

When there’s no school to attend and even leaving the house is a perilous proposition, education and social activity have little significance. Such people regarded the rise of the Taliban as an end to the chaos of war and a restoration of the harmony, such as it was, of the traditional order.

When the Taliban emerged, women in Saudi Arabia were in a similar situation to their counterparts in Afghanistan, except for the warfare. Mullah Omar, the founder of the Taliban, said that Saudi Arabia represented his vision of the ideal society.

No one in the US or other Western countries were talking about women’s rights in Saudi Arabia back then. But when it came to Afghanistan, that was treated as a casus belli.

In Oct. 2001, shortly after the US’ invasion of Afghanistan, congresswoman Carolyn Maloney became the first person to address the House of Representatives in a burqa. Maloney talked about how stifling the burqa felt and insisted that the war had to be fought.

Rana Abdelhamid, a Muslim American and an activist for women’s rights, posted a picture of Maloney’s speech to Twitter on Aug. 16.

“I was 9 years old when I watched my Congresswoman wear a burqa in Congress to justify the invasion of Afghanistan. For the rest of my life, I knew that as a Muslim woman my identity would be weaponized to justify American wars. 20 years of war later, what did we accomplish?”

Wars cleave societies in half.

Here are some of the contradictory reports coming out of Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Just 100 of 700 female journalists are still working in Kabul. Women are being hired for sub-cabinet positions in the government and are allowed to be educated in universities divided by gender. Women protesters are being dispersed, but Taliban members who dispersed the protesters are being arrested. Some say the Taliban are just as oppressive as ever, while others argue that they’ve changed.

What’s clear is that such debates have little meaning for the 70% of Afghan women who inhabit the feudal society of the countryside.

It’s only natural for women in urban areas to be concerned and frightened about the Taliban’s return to power. But if we orient the debate about Afghan women’s rights on the relationship between the Taliban and urban women who are active in society, we run the risk of repeating Maloney’s error.

The most urgent need for women in rural areas who have no conception of being educated or active in society is completely ending the war and rebuilding society. Calling on the Taliban to improve women’s rights is hardly the only way to provide such women with meaningful help.

By Jung E-gil, senior staff writer

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]

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