The Taliban justify their atrocities from a religious point of view, in line with their interpretation of Sharia, especially with regards to women. As many scholars have pointed out, this interpretation has been led by men, leading many to challenge the patriarchal interpretation of Sharia law that has formed. At the same time, the Western world has all too often referred to the need to ‘save’ Muslim women from religious practices, which such women have the right and freedom to choose to observe. It is only by listening to Afghan women and amplifying their voices in solidarity that equality and justice can be reached.
SHARIA AND FIQH
The word ‘Sharia’, which is religious law, means ‘the way’. Sharia is thought of by believers as eternal and as the words of Allah as recounted to Prophet Mohammad. Sharia is accompanied by Fiqh, which is the human understanding of Sharia that is implemented by jurists.
As many female scholars and their allies have pointed out, Fiqh is formed and interpreted almost solely by men. This practice has begun to be challenged by feminist Muslims and female scholars, keen to contest the misogynist patriarchal application of Islamic law. Academics and scholars such as Ziba Mir Hosseini, Amina Wudud, Fatima Seedat, and Fatima Mernissi have continuously challenged the sources of authority in the realm of Islam.
As legal anthropologist Ziba Mir Hussaini explains in “Muslim Women’s Quest for Equality”, there is a clear difference between religious faith and organised religion:
“The result is the pervasive polemical and rhetorical tricks of either glorifying a faith without acknowledging the horrors and abuses that are committed in its name or condemning it by equating it with those abuses. Of course, religious faith and organi[s]ed religion are linked, but they are not the same thing, as is implied by conflating them in the label of ‘Islamic’ or ‘religious’”
Indeed, this separation is made clearer through examples from around the world. In some Islamic countries that use Sharia as a source for the application of laws, women have constantly resisted and advocated for laws that could ultimately lead to equality. The Aurat March in Pakistan and Girls of Enghelab in Iran are examples of women protesting for equal rights. Moreover, educated Indonesian women, through acts of protest, led to the Indonesian government banning schools from forcing girls to wear the hijab. Furthermore, when Al Sadr of Iraq called for the segregation of men and women, Iraqi women were the first group to take to the streets. Women have thereby drawn on legal language and argued their cases persuasively through acts of objection and protests.
THE TALIBAN’S INTERPRETATION OF SHARIA
Afghanistan’s legal system has changed over the past two decades. The current Afghan constitution was adopted in 2004, but the Taliban do not answer to the Afghan constitution and remain unmoved when it comes to international or humanitarian laws. A new ruling issued by the Taliban dissolved the Humans Rights Commission for overseeing the implementation of the constitution. Laws and reforms created by the Taliban are interpretations of Sharia.
It has been over a year since the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. In the first week of May 2022, the Taliban issued an edict which stated that only women’s eyes should be visible in public and that women should not leave their houses unless necessary, and that they will enforce punishments for men who allow ‘their women’ outside. For the past year, women in Afghanistan have had to stay inside. On the whole, women are restricted from working, travelling, and living freely. Women's employment is to decrease by 21 percent by mid-2022 according to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction’s (SIGAR) report which was published in the first quarter of the year. As poverty was predicted to hit over 97 percent of people in the country, female breadwinners and widows remain one of the most fragile groups in Afghan society.
In terms of women’s access to education, the Taliban has failed to even call upon Sharia as a justification: in some cases, the Taliban has been vague, simply referring to questions of security, whilst in other instances, no explanation has been provided at all and women are simply not allowed to take part. All this, even when the Prophet Mohammad’s reflections on the importance of education in the Quran are clear: “God will exalt those of you who believe and those who have knowledge to high degrees” (Q’uran: 58:11). The famous Hadith “seek knowledge from cradle to grave” does not escape any Muslim around the world. Seeking knowledge and educating society are tenets that are held by both international conventions as well as by Islam.
It is clear, therefore, that the Taliban sees education – and women’s access to it – as a threat. Since their last time in power, Afghan women have become more broadly educated than they were before, with many women gaining degrees in Islamic law and religious sciences as well as secular subjects. Indeed, in 2018, almost 40 percent of girls were in school in comparison with 6 percent in 2003. In 2015, Kabul university launched a master’s degree in gender and women’s studies. From 2003-2018 women's participation in university entrance exams was around 31 percent. In some provinces like Herat, women’s participation exceeded men’s participation. Women in Herat accounted for 53 percent participation by 2019. Many of these women have argued back and challenged the Taliban in their pronouncements on Sharia and gendered rulings.
WOMEN’S BODIES – DEBATED BY THE TALIBAN AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY
The disputed covering of skin that is the topic of discussion for the Taliban in Afghanistan and for international actors is an indication of how the bodies of women are instrumentalised. Afghan women’s bodies are, therefore, at the very centre of discussions about power, religion, and culture and are leveraged by those seeking to assert their power. Whilst women’s bodies are viewed by the Taliban as a field of application for organised religion, the international community has interpreted the way women dress in Afghanistan as a measure of Islamification. Neither approach is correct.
On the one hand, the Taliban is seeking to impose strict codes of dress on women: in some reported cases, they are requesting loose sleeves to be pinned at the wrists and have fired teachers and threatened the closure of their schools if they do not comply with their requested regulations. Moves like this by the Taliban are not new: a similar tactic was used in 1996 when the Taliban imposed the burka on women, claiming that it is an Afghan tradition in accordance with their interpretation of Sharia. Moreover, in September 2021, the Taliban gathered female supporters together to protest against democracy and express their alignment with the Taliban; the protest was held in one of the Universities in Kabul and involved the women covering themselves completely in Black. Some have questioned the legitimacy of the protest and no other such protest has happened since.
However, the burka, depicted in countless iconic photos, has never been part of Afghan tradition. Afghanistan has always been multi-ethnic, multicultural, and diverse. Afghan women’s traditional clothing reflects a diverse and colourful inheritance that includes the tribal clothing of many ethnicities including Hazaras, Uzbeks, and Pashtuns. The holding of a pro-Taliban protest as described above seems to be a clear response to the milestones that Afghan women have reached in the last two decades: it was a power move. This power move was an effort to publicly highlight the Taliban’s refusal to accept the milestones that Afghan women have reached over the past few decades. These milestones did not involve Western-style modernisation brought to the country through international intervention, but were reached by Afghan women as they strived for the modernisation of Islam and the implementation of equality for women within an Islamic framework.
On the other hand, at an international level, the burka has come to stand for increasing Islamisation and a sign of women being ‘subjugated’ and needing to be ‘rescued’. Hilary Clinton’s post-2001 speech made this argument: “Afghan women are silenced by the law of their land.” However, the country has had a long and varied history that has seen women both choosing to and choosing not to veil – of their own free will.
INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY
The current situation in Afghanistan is dire. All economic funds and assets of the former government are still frozen and limited. Some countries such as Russia, China, and Pakistan are lobbying for recognising the Taliban, whilst in their own countries, women are free and are allowed to attend university and work. We cannot look at Afghan women as separate entities. What they need is our solidarity. As women who can currently walk freely and gain education, we must keep their resistance in mind in these moments of invisibility. We must support them, even if from afar. In doing so, we should be aware of the body politics brought upon Afghan women. We can and should recognise that it is Afghan women that can make a change politically, economically, and socially – and their allies should raise their voices internationally.
Women across the globe today can amplify the voice of Afghan women - not for any reason but for equality and justice. Their wants and needs for equality and choice are no different than those of the women marching on the streets of Dublin or Berlin. As women and as humans, we should urge our thinking to become holistic. Whether in Germany or in Afghanistan, women become a yardstick for inequality, unfair treatment by oppressive governments, and a field for application of politics.
Soraya Afzali is a PhD. Candidate in Near and Middle Eastern Studies at Trinity College Dublin – She is an ESR within Marie Sklodowska Curie Innovative Training Network under the Network of Excellence Training on Hate (NETHATE) project.