Just like Leopards are never known to possess the ability to change the indelible spots on their skins, the Islamic extremist group that runs Afghanistan known as the Taliban will struggle to eternity to stop itself from manifesting its true, ugly, and wicked colours through its actions.
A fortnight ago, the group added another absurdity to their long list of atrocities against humanity. This time, women were their victims and as usual, they had zero apologies.
The Taliban has taken another stride in its war against women with its recent ban which prevents women from attending universities, and also from working with NGOs and INGOs.
With the Taliban’s directives, the rest of the world is in an uproar, but the group is unflinching like it has always been doing while announcing its unfair and restrictive moves against womanhood.
Sadly, while the rest of the world waves flags and complains in anger and disenchantment, the Taliban is unmoving and unflinching, and even more ready to shake the nation and the world with its measures that are nothing short of human rights abuses and backward tendencies.
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The sad thing about this new declaration is that it came at a time when people were hoping for, and expecting that the edict that prevented girls from attending public secondary schools would be reversed, which meant double sadness and disappointment for the citizens.
The world hasn’t been silent in its objections to the new directives by the Taliban. For the Turkish Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Taliban’s ban on university education is inhumane and against the tenets of Islam.
He and many other learned people under the Islamic doctrine argue that Islam, is, in fact, in support of the pursuit of education and science. According to the office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs under the United Nations, the UN plans to have a meeting with Taliban leaders to clarify the edict because it seems, it infringes on the fundamental rights of women.
The United States is also vehemently opposing the moves by the Taliban related to banning women from University education. According to US Ambassador, Robert Wood, the United States Department, the Taliban would be further exempted from international community relations due to its recent move.
Wood said the move by the Taliban prevents it from becoming a legitimate member of the international community because it has continued to show outright disrespect for the rights of all Afghans, particularly women and girls.
At this point, even the Taliban knows that it doesn’t have what it takes to be in power. The Taliban can be best described as an extremist group that is made up of barbarians, backward-thinking humans, and a government that’s incapable of ruling the 40 million people in the nation.
In August 2021, the Taliban came into power following the withdrawal of the US troops and made several promises including the fact that it would honor women’s rights. However, it gave a caveat saying it will do this within the norms of Islamic laws now it seems to hide behind this caveat, perpetuating the worst evil we have seen so far in the Democratic world.
After pledging that women will go to school, as teachers and students, it has gone back on its word and imposed a terrible absurd rule on all women within Afghanistan preventing them not only from working with NGOs but from schooling, teaching, and learning.
If it continues to improve its skewed and blood-thirsty interpretation of Islam on everyone within the nation, you can expect that in no time the nation will suffer under its rule and become a shadow of itself.
One would wonder why after announcing in September 2021 that women could attend universities provided they wore their Hijabs and stored separately from men, the government would go as far as banning them from attending secondary schools and the same, universities and not only that but also from entering gyms and working in most parts of the public sector.
This situation is not surprising in any way because the last time the Taliban was in power which is between 1996 to 2001 women were banned from working, girls-only schools were closed and women were forced to wear the burqa and forbidding from travelling without having male chaperones. They were also resisted and prevented from getting medical care unless they had a male chaperone.
With up to 48.7 percent of women making up the population in Afghanistan and suffering these widespread restrictions, it has become clear to the entire world that the Taliban is so backward that it will rather use religious manipulation to achieve it’s goals while trampling on ever source of reasoning, critical thinking, human rights and freedom, and even democracy.
The move of the Taliban is no short of regressive, sadistic, backward, and something the entire world must call out as barbaric and backward.
From global statistics, it is obvious that there exists a strong relationship between access to education and growth of the society. Hence, the Taliban must consider how even conservative national like the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia have reached middle ground and achieved respect for all genders and races.
Beyond Afghanistan, the fact that the Taliban exists is a strong warning to Nigeria that risks it’s justice system and an opportunity to do the right thing.
It behooves the international community to reach a strict decision to the unruly, wild, tyrannical, and unrestricted Taliban.
Other nations should impose sanctions on the Taliban and isolate Afghanistan until the pressure is enough to open the eyes that the group has strongly shut towards human rights and the dignity of the woman folk.
