Rights have been curtailed in a number of nations in recent years due to anti-feminist policies and discourse. UN Women reports a deepening of gender inequality. They project that it will take an additional 286 years to close the gender inequalities in women’s and girls’ legal rights worldwide. Governments need to pay attention to this reaction and take appropriate action because of its global breadth and magnitude. The Taliban in Afghanistan have outlawed women and adolescent girls from participating in several facets of everyday life, including going to secondary schools and colleges, working in a variety of occupations, and even being able to move around freely outside of the home.
Impact on Women’s Rights
The world’s most significant women’s rights catastrophe has been brought about by the Taliban in the last 2.5 years when they took back control of Afghanistan. Women’s and girls’ rights to education, paid work, freedom of expression and movement, and political involvement are only a few of the numerous rights that have been infringed. The international community’s response has been muted and appears to be unaware of the serious consequences the situation in Afghanistan poses for women’s and girls’ rights across the world. To stop this from getting worse and to reaffirm the international community’s commitment to gender equality, more work has to be done. The press coverage of the Afghan conflict has mostly abated. The conflict in Ukraine and the weariness and humiliation of Western nations, whose twenty years of military and civilian involvement culminated in defeat and dust, overshadowed it. Afghans are unable to just go on and forget when a new conflict erupts in the Middle East; for women and girls in particular, life under the Taliban is an ever-deepening misery.
Global Backlash
Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have attacked women’s and girls’ human rights nonstop, breaking almost every facet of these rights in the more than two years since they took control of the country. Afghan women who protest Taliban atrocities are risking their lives by being subjected to arbitrary incarceration, torture, assault, monitoring, and exile. They merit the entire support of the global community in their fight. However, the world needs to support them as well, as the events in Afghanistan and the reaction to them have significant ramifications for global gender equality. Most people agree that the state of affairs concerning women’s rights in Afghanistan is the worst in the world. The UN Special Rapporteur on the state of human rights in Afghanistan has spoken of “the unprecedented deterioration of women’s rights,” and the nation is rated last in the Women, Peace and Security Index. Women from Afghanistan and UN authorities have referred to it as “gender apartheid.” There may never have been anything like it since the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was adopted 75 years ago, with the possible exception of the period from 1996 to 2001, when the Taliban once held control of Afghanistan.
Challenges and Opportunities
The livelihood of Afghan women is still under attack, as seen by the Taliban’s recent crackdowns on women working in the commercial sector, which included ordering the closure of all beauty salons at a loss of 60,000 jobs for women. A vital source of support and community, beauty salon closures also mark the loss of one of the few places outside the house where women are left alone. This is especially true in light of the Taliban’s methodical dismantling of services for women and girls who are victims of domestic abuse. More women and girls are facing crises as a result of their restriction on women performing the majority of jobs in humanitarian organizations. Women in Afghanistan’s increasingly gender-segregated culture sometimes go without help if there are no female personnel available to provide it. Beyond denying them basic access to food at risk, Afghan women and girls are losing even the opportunity to enjoy nature, play sports, or take a stroll in a park. However, governments and international organizations have not done a good job of responding to this issue. It has been, to put it mildly, unfeminist, disorderly, political, chaotic, and frequently indifferent.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Numerous officials emphasize to us the significance of “engaging” with the Taliban. However, it is now abundantly evident that such involvement has not persuaded the Taliban to halt their attack on women’s rights and may even be detrimental. When diplomats “engage,” economic transactions, hostage releases, and counterterrorism are frequently the main topics of conversation. Diplomats rarely prioritize the preservation of Afghan women’s rights, despite their protests and signals to the contrary.