Brian M Downing
Shortly after the Taliban regained power last month, opponents rallied in Kabul and other cities. Afghan flags were waved to show rejection of the Taliban’s white banners. Most demonstrations have ebbed. Those by women remain though, as do their videos and blogs and day-to-day resistance.
Women have the most to lose. Under the previous emirate (1996-2001), they were barred from most classrooms and workplaces. It’s unclear how strict the new regime will be but females at the Ministry of Women’s Affairs have been sent home and the bureau was renamed “Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice”. Qutb has met Orwell. The extent of the ancien regime’s austerity isn’t clear but optimism comes hard on the Afghan plains.
The Taliban leadership has emerged from isolated hideouts on both sides of the Durand Line. The war imposed a soldierly asceticism and sudden victory brought a sense of limitlessness. They don’t comprehend how different urban women are now, or don’t care. What changes they recognize are judged sins to be cleansed through rough hands.
A changed generation
Just under two-thirds of the country have no memory of Taliban rule. Since 2001 women have studied in schools and taken jobs in the workforce, including the police and army. They’ve played on sports teams and sent some to the Tokyo Olympics just before Kabul fell.
Urban women know their abilities and potentials and have forged ties with one another. The country isn’t what it was in 1996. It isn’t even what it was in 2016. Women have watched in anger over the years as Kabul politicians and soldiers fumbled about, failed to stop the Taliban, and brought disaster.
An energized world
The minds of Taliban leaders are shaped by mythic pasts, tendentious understandings of the Koran, and unquestioned patriarchal authority. An effort to Wahhabize their realm comes at an unfavorable time. We live in an era of global concerns, activism, and militancy. Feminism is a central part of the era. Even Saudi Arabia is loosening up, albeit reluctantly and very slowly.
Feminists around the world (and many others as well) are watching events in Afghanistan. They will use their voices and power to determine their countries’ recognition of and aid to the Afghan Emirate. The very name is off-putting to most. Malala Yousafzai, a victim of the Pakistani Taliban, and Greta Thunberg will make it a global issue. Afghan women will be heartened and emboldened. Concerns might resonate with Pakistani and Chinese women who are beginning to feel slighted.
The Taliban may have to choose between patriarchy and development. The former dominates their thinking for now now but they will see that lack of development will foment unrest, as it did in the nineties.
Militancy
Part of the changed world is the participation of women in the Arab Spring. They took to the streets to oust rulers and if fighting broke out, they picked up arms. Libyan women served in militias that defeated Qaddafi’s troops. Kurdish women in Syria and Iraq were important in defeating ISIL, perhaps most notably at the battle of Kobane which broke ISIL’s momentum. Women pilots from the Emirates bombed ISIL positions. A Kurdish woman approached a handful of ISIL troops and detonated a concealed bomb.
Women served in the In the Algerian war of independence (1954-62) and transported arms and planted bombs, often wearing religious garb to evade detection. The French responded by opening education to women and improving their legal status in the hope of drawing them away from the insurgency. It didn’t work and the Taliban of course won’t try it.
Afghan women will continue demonstrations in towns and cities. Other forms of resistance such as challenging dress codes and spraying slogans on walls will spread. Carrying books in public might be a compelling symbol of resolve – perhaps a defining international one. It might embarrass menfolk and stir them to resist.
Events in Libya and the Levant could inspire women to serve in or form armed cells and move from symbol to insurgency. Those with military or police experience can be cadres. One good thing about a burka is that a resolute woman can hide a Kalashnikov under one.
© 2021 Brian M Downing
Brian M Downing is a national security analyst who’s written for outlets across the political spectrum. He studied at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago, and did post-graduate work at Harvard’s Center for International Affairs. Thanks as ever to Susan Ganosellis.