The Woke Taliban

"Western cries of 'women's rights' appear a harmless demand. But when coupled with the incompatibility of much of these rights with the Islamic religion, their destructive effects on human society, their historical origins and the dangerous agendas for Muslim societies curtained behind them, a more sinister perspective emerges."

"The feminist ideology has been utilized for decades as a Western justification for the invasion, subjugation and bullying of Muslims."

"Today, the West seeks to ideologically subvert Muslim cultures through ideologies such as feminism."

"Feminism as Colonial Tool" Voice of Jihad editorial

AP Photo

 

Voice of Jihad is a propaganda tool of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, aka the Taliban. Unlike the propaganda infamously projecting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant's contempt for the West by graphically displaying barbarity to inspire Islamists to join the Caliphate while ensuring that civilized communities everywhere would recoil in horror and fear, the Taliban are employing the soft power of 'suasion by co-opting Western language in a twist to validate their vision of the rightful place of women in pure Islamic tradition.

 

Women must know their place. And it is not in public. Shamelessly garbed, immodestly flaunting themselves, unlike the piety of Islamist-approved burqas where women can stifle and stumble their way through life, shadowy figures of debased humanity. Figures wholly owned by father, son, uncle, cousin, husband. The very notion that women can aspire to have a career, a profession, employment to enable them to be independent and capable, is counter to all that Islam promises them; male guardianship, home sequestration, raising young, cooking, cleaning; above all satisfying their husband's sexual appetite -- on demand.

 

Loving husbands, in turn, take due care to avoid striking their wives' faces. Focusing instead on the body which in public is well shielded by the black, all-encompassing burqa through which the eyes are seen, and nothing more; take care not to expose an ankle, a wrist, or bear the flogging penalty. There is no need for women or girls to be educated beyond the skills of housework and all that it entails. Nor is there any patience for music, dance, celebrations, colour, gossip or female get-togethers; no good comes from any of it.

 

What the world fails to appreciate is that the Taliban are scholars, all-knowing and infallible, deeply and faithfully entrenched in the reading of the Koran and the Hadiths, inspired by the politics of Islam to scorn non-Islamic issues, cultures, religions, laws, education and social niceties. All of it is haram and harmful and to be avoided at all costs. The women of Afghanistan have no use for a "colonialist saviour" coming to their rescue and guiding them toward a more satisfactory way of life, suitable for the decadent West, certainly not for Afghanistan.

In reality Afghan women have made strides since the ouster of the Taliban, and have no wish to see them return, and themselves once again returned to male bondage and a dreary, miserable life of obedience and brood-mare status. They are invested now in professions of law, education, science, have received social status and employment with the absence of the misogynistic Taliban, urged upon them by the intelligence establishment of Pakistan's Inter-agency group. 

 

The Asia Foundation has found over its 15 years of publishing public-opinion through polling in Afghanistan that both men and women overwhelmingly support women's right to work outside the home, to vote, to run for public office and be fully independent. Now an air of crushing despondency has set in, with the near-advent of complete U.S. troop withdrawal from the country. Polls indicate that between 82 and 85 percent of respondents feel it to be "very important" that women's rights be protected, regardless of a 'peace deal' between the government and the Taliban.

 

Knowing full well that a peace agreement will be but a temporary screen rolled out for Western view, while the Taliban speedily return to power, inactivating the current government and all the social infrastructure that has benefited Afghans -- and dismissing all the gains that the women of Afghanistan have realized since the NATO, U.S.-led invasion to oust al-Qaeda from the country following the 9/11 atrocities. 

Afghan women at an earlier rally to support peace talks. Many fear the withdrawal of Nato troops will lead to severe restrictions of their freedoms. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images