The horror, the horror....

So, Afghanistan is back in the hands of the Taliban and the world watched in terror and pity as the Afghans succumbed once again to an autocratic regime after two decades of attempting to rebuild their lives. The Afghans who do not subscribe to the Taliban ideology believe that everything they have achieved over the past 20 years will once again be destroyed. The position of women is the biggest concern, and there is good reason to fear that it will be realigned to suit the Taliban’s regressive agenda. Already the Taliban have issued an edict against co-education, citing that as the starting point of all evil. So, it has begun.

Interestingly, the Taliban have been issuing statements about how they’re not looking to make trouble and how they’d like women to go back to offices and schools. Only time will tell if they really have turned over a new leaf or whether this is only a ruse to flush out rebels. Experts are already voicing opinions that run counter to this official position of the Taliban. Yet, the mere attempt at trying to reclaim their image shows that the Taliban are not impervious to international pressure; even the Taliban, apparently, do not like being sent to Coventry. Globalisation does have its uses.

The Taliban are somewhat to be pitied, though. America was instrumental in birthing the monster; yet, like Frankenstein, America later felt disgust at the creature and turned its back on it; baffled, but with an instinct for survival and viciousness, the Taliban went on to turn against America and everything it held dear. After 9/11 America determined to stamp out the creature it had helped to bring into existence; but as it is becoming clear, America will learn the hard way that every ill-considered action, too, has consequences that come home to roost. Having withdrawn from Afghanistan and decided to leave the country to its fate, Biden refuses to sacrifice any more sons and daughters of America to fight battles that the Afghans are unwilling, or unable, to fight themselves. One wishes this wisdom had prevailed in American foreign policy in the 1970s when they began to interfere in issues that did not concern them.

The Taliban claim that they are the people’s choice. That certainly seems an extraordinary declaration in view of the crazed scenes witnessed at Kabul airport, with Afghans pleading to be taken away to safety and preferring to risk life and limb rather than stay on in the homeland. Yet, in a way the Taliban have more claim over Afghanistan than do the Americans. At least the former are an evil native to the land. For all their wrongheadedness about the ‘true path’, they are right about one thing: globalisation is simply another name for Western imperialism. Objectively speaking, aren’t our cues to life taken from Western prompts? Are we not more familiar with Western philosophy and social theory than we are with our own? Are our social reforms not the result of Western influences? Left to ourselves, would we have abolished such horrors as sati, or invested in the cause of women’s education? Did we not, under the influence of Victorian prudery, learn to see homosexuality as unnatural and have now again changed our mind only because the West have? While social reform is certainly a must, it is also true that the West has influenced us and we have labelled it ‘progress’.

Let me hasten to add that I am not pro-Taliban. I do deeply sympathise with all the Afghan women who currently face a bleak and uncertain future. It is intolerable to imagine being kept away from intellectual pursuits, and any kind of agency, simply because one is a woman. Supporting the Taliban is to lay open the path to the establishment of the Republic of Gilead and relegating women to the status of walking wombs. And the position of men opposed to the Taliban regime is not even being discussed. The Nat Geo picture of Sharbat Gula (used in this blog entry) captures the horror of the Afghans perfectly and is as pertinent today as it was 30 years ago. Yet, most of the countries protesting so loudly over the Taliban policies also need to examine their own human rights records. Yes, we should certainly protest and condemn the Taliban. But should we not set our homes in order, too, while we are at it?