The horrifying brutality of the Taliban has been exposed yet again in a moving statement issued by activists in Afghanistan on International Women’s Day.
Almost three years on from the US pullout, the country’s Islamic fundamentalist rulers remain in full control of the impoverished country.
And the Women’s Council of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), the nation’s principal opposition group warned there was no let-up when it came to the relentless misogyny of what they called the “ignorant, savage terrorist group”.
The statement paid tribute to “those women and girls of Afghanistan who under the Taliban endure prison, torture and systematic humiliation, and those women, families and children who lost husbands in the war against the Taliban”.
International Women’s Day’s purpose is to support women in their struggle for better working conditions, increased wages, better rights and the elimination of discrimination and violence, the NRF statement continued.
However, it added: “But women and girls of Afghanistan face an even more fundamental struggle, to be recognised as human, and to secure their basic human and Islamic rights.
“The Taliban believe that a woman in Afghanistan is not created equal to God, she has no human rights.
“The Taliban, who have no connection to Islam and humanity, have their core identity revealed in how they treat women.”
In the eyes of the “ignorant and misogynistic” Taliban, women were mere commodities, the NDF statement explained.
Frequently forced into marriage, they were routinely tortured and abused in prison and even taken out of their homes at night and shot in front of their families.
In one instance in Balkh province, out of 37 women prisoners, 10 were tortured and killed in prison, eight women committed suicide after being released, and 10 were so traumatised they suffered permanent psychological damage, the NRF statement said.
In modern-day Afghanistan, women have no right to education or work, or even to leave their houses.
The statement explained: “In some punishments, women are buried alive in their houses.
“Since coming to power in August 2021, the Taliban has issued 80 decrees and orders against women.
“For the crime of demanding the rights of a women, her husband, children and parents are also imprisoned.
“Over two and half years have passed since the disgraceful, embarrassing and inhumane return of the Taliban and the long night of violence began against women in Afghanistan.”
The NRF statement said: “Fortunately, the voice of the women’s demand for rights has become global and has attracted the attention of the world.
“Countries and institutions are speaking in support of women of Afghanistan’s rights and have focused their interaction with Taliban on it.
“But this is not enough, Taliban are ignorant, savage and terrorist group, and interacting with Taliban is a betrayal of human values and humanity. No principle and value can justify the survival of such a group.”
As such there could be no Western accommodation of the Taliban, regardless of what some politicians have said, the statement concluded.
It warned: “Taliban are not a human and reformable phenomenon. They are incorrigible. They must be replaced not reformed.
“Long live the solidarity and national resistance of freedom-seeking and protesting women of Afghanistan.”
