More than two decades ago, shortly after the September 11th attacks, the United States began to orchestrate a war to get rid of Taliban rule in Afghanistan. Initially, it appeared to be a stunning success, as the Taliban lost one major city after another, and with astonishing speed. However, despite all of this startling early success, the Taliban was never entirely eradicated. In fact, the war dragged on and on, and in fact, ended up being literally the longest war that the United States was involved with, surpassing Vietnam and even the second Iraq war, which was fought simultaneously. Anyone who was paying attention can also remember how that war ended last year. Much like with Vietnam, there were chaotic, last-minute evacuations just before the United States left the country entirely, and the Taliban reassumed control over the country.
When they took over Afghanistan last year, the Taliban promised to rule with more moderation than the first time that they ruled the country, back in the 1990's thru to 2001. Today, the Taliban seems to be getting closer and closer to simply reverting back to those days of extremism.
There has been a major and massive crackdown on anything resembling women's rights there. And public floggings at football stadiums apparently are another trend from back then that appears to be coming back.
I remember reading Khaled Hosseini's "The Kite Runner," and seeing the movie version. One of the most haunting scenes was of the public entertainment offered by the Taliban during halftime. There was a public stoning of a man and a woman, who were accused of committing adultery. It was a chilling scene, and admittedly - fairly or unfairly - it came to be how I see life in Afghanistan under Taliban rule. Just a nightmare.
In some ways, the extremism of the Taliban regime - as well as the political pressure on the regime to reform and grow more moderate - reminds me of the days of white minority rule in South Africa during the days of apartheid. However, as extreme as apartheid and it's enforcement in South Africa was, it was a society that was in many ways close enough to what I was familiar with, that I could picture it. in fact, that is perhaps what made it all the more egregious.
That is one of the major differences. Because to me, admittedly never having been to, or even come close to having been to the country, it seems to me that Afghanistan feels very different and, admittedly, very foreign to me.
One major difference, for example, is how much - or perhaps more fittingly, how little - public perception of what is going on in Afghanistan from a foreign perspective actually matters to the Taliban regime. They have received a ton of criticism from around the world, and that now even includes other Islamic nations, including Saudi Arabia and Iran. Neither of those two countries are exactly known for their moderate policies regarding women, and Saudi Arabia has their own repressive policies against women, specifically. Yet, Afghanistan is quite extremist even in comparison to those two countries, so that is saying something.
Indeed, that makes Afghanistan's situation somehow very different to me than South Africa. Many whites - and particularly Afrikaners - claimed not to care what the outside world thought. They claimed that the rest of the world simply did not understand the full history of the country, which by their logic had led to apartheid. Yet, it sure seemed that they were sensitive to public perception, similarly to how some Americans these days claim not to care about criticism of the country, even though it seems quite clear to me that, in fact, they care very much, but just won't admit it. By comparison,. it really does feel that Afghanistan is so closed off, and the Taliban so set in their ways with the goal of achieving the ultimate Islamic state (at least as they see it), that they simply do not care what the rest of the world thinks. That would be especially true of people like me, who themselves are not Muslim.
So I am glad that other Islamic nations are criticizing the Taliban regime's policies in Afghanistan. Maybe their criticism will have more weight. But even then, I am not entirely sure that it will actually have an effect. After all, the world can hardly believe that Afghanistan will suffer from economic embargoes and sanctions and divestment, as happened in apartheid South Africa. Whites in South Africa enjoyed a very affluent lifestyle, and so such policies threatened their high standard of living. That is simply not the case in Afghanistan, which is and has long been as isolated and cut off from the world as a modern country can be.
Women have it especially bad in Afghanistan right now under the Taliban. But they are not the only ones suffering. In fact, I would not be surprised if more historical artifacts are destroyed, like the Bamiyan Buddha statues back in 2001, on the orders of the Taliban. Back then, the Taliban made anyone who was not of the Muslim faith wear yellow identifying markers, something that felt like an eerie reminder of the yellow stars that Jews were forced to wear during the days of Nazi rule over most of Europe.
Such a sad state of affairs in a country that has not seen or known any real peace now for something approaching half a century.
Below are links to two BBC articles that go into more detail about the seemingly deteriorating situation for human rights in Afghanistan at the moment:
Afghanistan: Tears and protests as Taliban shut universities to women Published 21 Decembre, 2022:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-64048082
Three women among dozen publicly flogged in Afghanistan - Taliban official Published 23 November
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-63736271
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