Brutal World Reminder

From Yahoo/USA Today:

“Afghanistan is a brutal reminder to American women: don't take our freedoms for granted”

The tragedy unfolding in Afghanistan this week has horrified the world. Footage of Afghans clinging to a U.S. plane, fleeing ahead of Taliban fighters, seemed darkly metaphorical of the stark contrast between American and Taliban values. The tragic news holds devastating consequences for Afghan women in particular, who are watching two decades of progress burn before their eyes. When the Taliban regime fell in 2001, Afghan women acquired basic freedoms that had been withheld from them. The 2004 Afghan Constitution granted them equal rights under the law, and legislation in 2009 protected women from violence as well as forced and underage marriages. Women had the opportunity to attend school, and despite a plethora of complicating factors, 40% of them did.

Women suffer under Taliban rule There’s little confusion about what Afghan women can expect now. Under previous Taliban rule, women were forced to wear headscarves and head-to-toe coverings. They were forbidden to vote, work or receive an education after the age of 12. They weren’t allowed in public without a male guardian, and were beaten, whipped and even killed for breaking these laws. Women accused of adultery were stoned to death. The Taliban also has a history of sexually enslaving women with forced “marriages.” As recent as July, Taliban leaders in overtaken areas ordered local religious leaders to give them a list of any 15- to 45-year-old-women, who would be “married” to Taliban fighters. With the Taliban now in control of Kabul, Afghan women are paying high sums for burqas, many for the first time in their lives. Others risk horrific consequences with their refusal to do so. A 26-year-old Afghan university student named Habiba has lost sleep worrying about the future of her education and life under Taliban rule. “If I wear the burqa, it means that I have accepted the Taliban’s government," she said, “I’m afraid of losing the accomplishments I fought for so hard.”

Freedom requires education to survive In such circumstances, women have fought back to have the education that is a right for us in the United States. Before U.S. intervention in 2001, one Afghan woman opened a school for girls, defying the Taliban’s ban on female education. One of her female pupils had previously disguised herself as a boy so that she could attend the boys school, according to the New York Times. A myriad of examples highlight this common hatred totalitarian regimes have for liberal education. Throughout history, unjust rulers have attacked and attempted to control education because they recognize that tyranny cannot survive an educated citizenry.

We saw this in Nazi Germany with the murder of intellectuals, the burning of books, and the Hitler’s Youth indoctrination programs. The Soviet Union was similarly comprised of ideological propaganda and censorship with draconian penalties for educators who strayed from the official state orthodoxy. There are similar characteristics in the propaganda-driven education systems currently stifling the pursuit of truth in China. While the Taliban fighters have photoshoots in the Kabul Presidential Palace, the women of Afghanistan face a horrible and painful future. “Our women are Muslim and will be happy to be living under sharia law,” the Taliban's spokesman said Tuesday. Yet just hours after he made this announcement, Taliban fighters in the Takhar province shot and killed a woman for not wearing a burqa. Some women have already begun protesting in the streets, which I fear will have only negative consequences. As a recent college graduate, I feel ashamed for not fully appreciating the gift and opportunities that have been open to me. Not only did I benefit from the right to education in the United States, I had the luxury of receiving a degree from the University of Notre Dame. While at Notre Dame, I met girls from difficult backgrounds where women’s rights are not fully acknowledged. They expressed feeling overwhelmed by the beauty and freedom they encountered upon entering the United States to pursue their own education.

Waking up today, girls in Afghanistan are realizing that their whole lives have been changed, and that they no longer possess these gifts we fail to fully treasure. In the United States, women make up 55.5% of undergraduate and graduate students, and earn 57% of bachelors degrees. Among the enormous strides that women have made in various areas, the fact that women make up a record 27% of the 117th Congress demonstrates the disparity between our cultures. More than a quarter of our highest legislative body is made up of women, while women in Afghanistan will soon not have the opportunity to receive an education. This month, more than 11 million women in the United States are projected to return to college. As women in sororities trend on social media and “rush Tik-Tok” with their “outfit of the day,” and single-handedly keep the tanning industry alive, girls in Afghanistan are putting on burqas, knowing their identities are about to be erased from the public eye. “They’re chanting death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time. It's utterly bizarre.” CNN’s Clarissa Ward said on camera this week, as heavily armed Taliban fighters cheered behind her. Ironically, Ward was wearing a burqa when she said it.

Yes, the Taliban are friendly. That’s why Afghans fell to their death, desperately clinging to a departing American plane. Watching that devastating footage, I am grateful for the liberty to pursue an education, and to work, marry and live freely. My heart goes out to the women of Afghanistan, who are watching their freedoms depart with the American airplanes that have abandoned them.

^ This is an important message that every woman (American or not) and every man (American or not) needs to know and understand. The Taliban are terrorists who do not care about anything other than themselves. They don’t care about the non-Taliban Afghanis. They don’t care about Afghani women. They don’t care about Afghanistan. The sooner the world remembers/learns that the better. ^

https://news.yahoo.com/afghanistan-brutal-reminder-american-women-100344092.html?fr=sycsrp_catchall