I first thought about a thread on Afghanistan but then I realised there are always stories here and there that have a particular effect on me as a woman, and I thought to keep them in one place. I know 100% these stories affect men greatly too, because we have brothers, friends, fathers, partners, but I do not know if they have quite the same fear kick in the belly. And of course men are suffering terribly in the situations also. It is just this world remains quite difficult for women in different places, and I feel that connection to the female of the species.
Might as well get it out of the way - I do not vibe with all that pay gap, rape culture, toxic masculinity stuff that is rammed down our collective throats at the moment. I have adult sons who are brilliant, as are their friends, their peers, etc. I am not a feminist as the concept exists as a modern political entity, though I am big time on the side of girls and women. People can talk about that stuff if it is their bag somewhere else - I understand people can be upset about those things and are completely entitled to their opinion.
Anyway I will start with Afghanistan because that bothers me recently.
Many years ago in the 1990s when the Taliban first started up I heard stories that horrified me of women being forced to leave their jobs, not allowed education or medical attention, even in childbirth, and having to wear slippers so that they could be more silent as they moved about. Now the US have left Afghanistan, and one can argue about the geopolitics of that. In that wake of that the Taliban are moving across the country like a wild fire, well -equipped, taking cities, driving refugees before them, and kidnapping girls from 12 years old to be their wives or sex slaves. It must be unimaginably terrifying to be living in that place right now. The thoughts of trying to protect your daughter or sister or wife from being captured and kept to be continuously abused by marauding groups of mobile well-armed fanatics is just terrible.
It is terrible for men also, there are decapitations. The men are being killed, the women raped. Rape is a tactic of war.
A million refugees have been displaced, they are living in tents in large cities like Kabul, 70% are women and children fleeing. Those cities look like they might fall to the Taliban. A medieval social structure will be reimposed.
https://www.theguardian.com/global-deve ... fghanistanHowever, 38-year-old Ziagul from Bamiyan does not need a government agency to tell her that the Taliban are using women as “weapons of war”. She is old enough to remember what happened when they attacked her province in the 1990s.
“Even then when they attacked Bamiyan, they had raped women. This fear has always been in our minds. That’s why we ran away, to prevent this from happening again,” she says.
Ziagul and six other women from Bamiyan escaped to the capital in the middle of the night. Many families in their villages are sending just the women and girls away to safer areas, they say.
Many believe that the Taliban have become more violent and brutal than in the 1990s. “Much of the recent wave of displacement across Afghanistan has been caused by the fear the Taliban have created about how they will treat the survivors,” says Ali Amiri, an Afghan sociologist and university professor.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/artic ... fghanistanA generation of Afghan women who have taken their place in society are now watching that space shrink before their eyes. They entered public life as lawmakers, local governors, doctors, lawyer, teachers and public administrators, working for two decades to help create a civil society and generate opportunities for those who come after them.
Now the Taliban are going door-to-door in some areas, compiling lists of women and girls aged between 12 and 45 years for their fighters to forcibly marry. Women are again being told they cannot leave the house without a male escort, they cannot work, study or dress as they please. Schools and colleges are being shut and businesses destroyed. The exodus of those who can afford to flee the country is growing by the day.