#Betrayl of Western Values

[underthewingsofthblackeagle]

2022 - Afghanistan ... while the world looks away.

          The Taliban in Afghanistan has further clamped down on human rights in the country. In the latest blow, the Taliban's supreme leader has ordered judges to fully enforce Sharia or Islamic Law. It is an edict that could see the return of public floggings, executions and stonings for certain crimes. Women especially could be at the receiving end of many of these punishments. During their previous rule in the mid-nineties, the Taliban routinely stoned women for the crime of adultery. Last week, the group banned women from entering parks, gyms and public baths. The ban adds to a slew of curtailments to freedom Afghan women already face, as the Taliban ratchets up restrictions on public life after its return to power in August 2021. Since the chaotic withdrawal of NATO forces paved the way for the Taliban's comeback last year, Afghanistan's new hardline rulers have deprived girls of getting a secondary education. The group made its U-turn on indications it would open all girls' high schools in March. Taliban authorities have also suppressed activists who have protested for women's rights to education, work and freedom, and there has been an increase in murders of women that go unpunished. The group has also told women they should not leave the home without a male relative and must cover their faces.

          Ever since the Taliban came to power, the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan have continuously shrinked. The chance that most teenage girls will be able to return to school is dwindling by the day. Under increasing economic pressure, some parents have had to marry off their daughters - often to men much older than their age.

          At the onset of the second winter under Taliban rule, Afghan families face a grim choice between warming their homes or eating. But many can't afford either, as an increase in malnutrition and pneumonia cases among children indicates.

          Afghanistan's Taliban rulers won't allow women to join their cabinet, but they have no qualms meeting a woman cabinet minister from another Islamic country. Pakistan's deputy foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar was in Kabul earlier in the week to meet her opposite number in the Taliban. The Taliban happy to greet her at the airport and then sit across the table from her. An Afghan woman doing the same would be unthinkable. Among other things, Taliban rule has seen most Afghan women prevented from going back to their jobs and girls prevented from returning to secondary school. Women human rights activists have been arrested and tortured. Parwana Nijrabi spent 24 days in jail after being arrested for participating in a women's rights protest in Kabul in mid-January this year. She's now in Germany as a refugee and spoke to DW News about her experience in prison.

          Three major aid groups have suspended their operations in Afghanistan, saying they can't work without their female staff. This follows an order by the country's Taliban government telling all humanitarian organizations to stop employing women. The ban comes just days after the group barred women from attending universities.