Women, extremism and repression under Taliban 2.0 in Afghanistan: beyond the good

ABSTRACT

This article examines the position of women in Afghanistan after the Taliban return to power in August 2021. Importantly, the anti-modern and anti-western political ideology of the Taliban played a substantial role in how they came to power again through unorthodox and unconstitutional means, exercising extensive total control and power in an unconstitutional and arbitrary manner. The article argues that the current situation in Afghanistan is bleak, especially for women. It thus therefore proposes that the Taliban must embrace a pluralistic balancing of space for all religious perspectives within Islam and local cultures of Afghanistan to be recognised as a political entity responsible for legitimate governance in Afghanistan. Simply trying to repress women, whether rhetorically or actually, is indeed beyond minimum expectations of good governance.

KEYWORDS:

• Afghanistan
• ideology
• Islam
• liberty
• NATO
• women

Acknowledgments

I am indebted to Prof. Werner Menski for valuable suggestions and comments on my manuscript. I am also grateful to three anonymous reviewers for their insightful feedback.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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2. Krishnan and Johny, The Comrades and the Mullahs.

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4. Mälksoo, “The Challenge of Liminality for International Relations Theory,” 491–92.

5. Manchanda, “Rendering Afghanistan Legible,” 387.

6. Ibid.

7. McKinley, “We All Lost Afghanistan,” 1.

8. Abbas, The Return of the Taliban.

9. Connah, L. “US Intervention in Afghanistan.”

10. Solhdoost, “The Taliban and Their Machiavellian Moment.”

11. Lassi, “Pakistan’s Opioid Squeeze,” 325–342.

12. Lieven, “Afghanistan,” 483–4.

13. Dodge, “Intervention and Dreams of Exogenous State-building,” 1207.

14. The Washington Post, “Laura Bush on Taliban Oppression of Women.”

15. Welland, “Liberal Warriors and the Violent Colonial Logics of Partnering and Advising,” 289–307.

16. Suhrke, “Reconstruction as Modernisation,” 191–1308; Heath, “Introduction,” 1–44; and Manchanda, Imagining Afghanistan.

17. Bouvier and Machin, “#Stand with Women in Afghanistan.”

18. Manchanda, Imagining Afghanistan, 152.

19. Partis-Jennings, “The (In)security of Gender in Afghanistan’s Peacebuilding Project,” 411–425.

20. Hunt, “Embedded Feminism and the War on Terror,” 51–71; and Manchanda, Imagining Afghanistan.

21. Bouvier and Machin, “#Stand with Women in Afghanistan.”

22. Kandiyoti, “The Politics of Gender and Reconstruction in Afghanistan,” 31.

23. Mannell, et al., “A Qualitative Study of Women’s Lived Experiences,” 1–17.

24. Weigand, Waiting for Dignity.

25. Farhadi, “Lessons Learned from Afghanistan,” 1–14.

26. Sharan, Inside Afghanistan Political Networks, Informal Order, and State Disruption.

27. Heath, “Introduction,” 1–20; Kugelman, “Mission Creep on Repeat,” 249–265; and Weigand, Waiting for Dignity.

28. Stewart, “The Last Days of Intervention,” 60–70; and Wani, “Afghanistan’s Neo-Taliban Puzzle.”

29. Atkins, “Who Lost Afghanistan?” 966.

30. Johnson, “The Illusion of Afghanistan’s Electoral Representative Democracy,” 1–37.

31. Najimi, Gender and Public Participation in Afghanistan.

32. Lassi, “Pakistan’s Opioid Squeeze,” 325–342.

33. Ertürk, Integration of the Human Rights of Women and a Gender Perspective.

34. Wani, “Afghanistan’s Neo-Taliban Puzzle.”

35. Johnson, “The Illusion of Afghanistan’s Electoral Representative Democracy,” 24.

36. Sakhi, “The Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan and Security Paradox,” 383–401; and Noori and Coburn, “The Last Days of Afghan Republic.”

37. Kugelman, “Mission Creep on Repeat,” 250.

38. Grzegorzewski, Spencer, and Brown, “The Taliban’s Exploitation of Afghan Information and Information Systems,” 129–148.

39. Abbas, The Return of the Taliban; and Kugelman, “Mission Creep on Repeat.”

40. Abbas, The Return of the Taliban.

41. Johnson, “The Illusion of Afghanistan’s Electoral Representative Democracy.”

42. Grzegorzewski, Spencer, and Brown, “The Taliban’s Exploitation of Afghan Information and Information Systems,” 130–148; and Timberg and Lima, “Today’s Taliban Uses Sophisticated Social Media Practices that Rarely Violate the Rules.”

43. Grzegorzewski, Spencer, and Brown, “The Taliban’s Exploitation of Afghan Information and Information Systems,” 130–148.

44. McKinley, “We All Lost Afghanistan.”

45. Yousaf and Jabarkhail, “US Withdrawal and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan: Future Policy Directions.”

46. Akbar, “Afghanistan’s Women Are on Their Own.”

47. Gul, “US, Taliban Sign Historic Afghan Peace Deal.”

48. Abbas, The Return of the Taliban.

49. Ibid.

50. Stewart, “The Last Days of Intervention,” 60–73.

51. Miller, “Biden’s Afghanistan Withdrawal,” 37.

52. Human Rights Watch, “Afghanistan: Taliban Deprive Women of Livelihoods, Identity.”

53. Davenport, State Repression and the Domestic Democratic Peace.

54. Andreski, The Uses of Comparative Sociology, 311.

55. Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 245.

56. Ibid, 344.

57. Ali, “China – Pakistan cooperation on Afghanistan,” 506–528.

58. Ibid.

59. Jackson and Weigand, “How the Taliban Are Losing the Peace in Afghanistan,” 144–47.

60. Barfield, Afghanistan, 261.

61. Ibid.

62. Noori and Coburn, “The Last Days of Afghan Republic.”

63. Burki, “The Politics of Zan from Amanullah to Karzai,” 45–59.

64. Riphenburg, “Post-Taliban Afghanistan,” 401–421.

65. Akbari and True, “One Year on From the Taliban Takeover of Afghanistan,” 624–633.

66. Women Deliver, “Invest in Girls and Women.”

67. Najimi, Gender and Public Participation in Afghanistan.

68. Grau, “Supporting Women’s Movements in Afghanistan,” 409–426.

69. UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, “Interview: Literacy rate in Afghanistan increased to 43%”.

70. USAID, “Education.”

71. Jalali, “Reflections on the Fateful Collapse of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces.”

72. Reuters, “Men will Represent Women at Gathering for National Unity – Taliban Leader.”

73. The Guardian, “Taliban Fighters Stop Chemists Selling Contraception.”

74. Fox News, “Taliban Bans Families, Women from Restaurants with Gardens, Green Spaces in Afghanistan’s Herat Province.”

75. BBC, “Afghanistan: Taliban Ban Women from Universities amid Condemnation.”

76. Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, “Afghanistan: Ordinance of 1996 Concerning Women’s Rights and Duties.”

77. Cited in Wimpelmann, The Pitfalls of Protection, 39.

78. Emadi, Repression, Resistance, and Women in Afghanistan.

79. Ibid.

80. Ibid.

81. Noori and Coburn, “The Last Days of Afghan Republic.”

82. Cole, “The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere,” 123.

83. Bagai, “Valor Behind the Burqa”; and Altınay and Pető “Women’s Courageous Resistance to Gender Apartheid in Afghanistan.”

84. Pal, “Taliban Replaces Women’s Ministry with Ministry of Virtue and Vice.”

85. Foucault, The History of Sexuality,

86. Ibid., 143.

87. Ibid., 136.

88. Yousaf and Jabarkhail, “US Withdrawal and the Taliban Regime in Afghanistan: Future Policy Directions,” 3.

89. Chishti, “Gender and the Development Battlefield in Afghanistan,” 250–261.

90. Aljazeera, “Transcript of Taliban’s First News Conference in Kabul.”

91. Amnesty International, “Afghanistan.”

92. Jackson and Weigand, “How the Taliban Are Losing the Peace in Afghanistan,” 144–47.

93. Akbar, “Afghanistan’s Women Are on Their Own.”

94. Burki, “The Politics of Zan from Amanullah to Karzai,” 45–59; and Abdullah et al., “Banning Women from Public Spaces in Afghanistan,” 247–249.

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Zahoor Ahmad Wani

Zahoor Ahmad Wani, is an Assistant Professor at Department of Political Science, School of Liberal and Creative Arts, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab. His area of teaching and specialisation include international relations, western political philosophy and issue in contemporary political theory. He is also a Deputy Editor of South Asia Research (SAGE).