As Dr Martin Luther King stated “An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. The United States withdrawal in Afghanistan has created a new series of problems in the country. With the Taliban taking power in 2021 the regime began restricting rights to women banning them from education and restrictions on freedom of speech. Years of wars waged by external forces in Afghanistan have left the country in the situation it is in today and with no real opposition to the Taliban has decided to make women its public enemy. Women in Afghanistan have taken to the streets of Kabul and other cities to protest the harsh restrictions imposed upon women. “The Taliban could take our pens and books, but they couldn’t stop our minds from thinking” ( Yousafzai 2013)
Background to the Kabul airport crisis and Taliban takeover.
In February 2020 President Trump announced plans to withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months. Donald Trump negotiated with the Taliban that US forces would withdraw from the country and to free imprisoned Taliban soldiers. Following through with his predecessors promises Biden in his 2020 election campaign promised to withdraw more troops from Afghanistan “My administration strongly supports the diplomatic process that’s underway and to bring an end to this war that is closing out 20 years.” (Biden 2020). After the US withdrawal Taliban forces surrounded the capital Kabul and proclaimed themselves as the new government of Afghanistan. This then led to the Kabul airport crisis as US officials said they were prepared to accept up to 22,000 allies in the weeks after the withdrawal and people scrambling to escape the Taliban. Since then, the Taliban have had no serious opposition to government as they begin to silence all those who criticise them. What happened in Afghanistan mattered in 2020 and still matters today. The truth is that years of external involvement in Afghanistan has led to the collapse of the economy and infrastructure in the region and without a stable government it has led to chaos.
The calamity in Afghanistan is the wests’ fault and women are now facing the repercussions. On paper women in Afghanistan are seen to have the same rights as men the constitution of Afghanistan states “Any kind of discrimination and distinction between citizens of Afghanistan shall be forbidden the citizens of Afghanistan, man and woman, have equal rights and duties before the law” . (Constitution of Afghanistan 2004). However, this is not the case there is no equal rights for men and women in Afghanistan as since the Taliban took over government institutions it began rolling back on women’s rights and human rights and imposed strict interpretation of Sharia law. Women are now banned from third level education, entering public parks, working or leaving the house without a male chaperone.
What can be done?
Countries around the world should end diplomatic ties with the Taliban government. The United Nations should try to halt the Taliban’s access to arms which they use as a means to silence opposition. The Taliban have killed Murzal Nabizada former MP on the 15 th of January of this year. “She was killed in darkness but the Taliban build their system of gender apartheid in full daylight” (Neumann 2023). As Malala Yousafzai said “they thought that the bullets would silence us, but they failed and out of that silence came thousands of voices” (Yousafzi 2013) Although women in Afghanistan have been stripped of their rights, they remain strong and persevere.
Polity 