WORLD NEWS

The latest in Taliban’s brutal attacks on Afghan women’s choices and freedoms is to ban them from parks. Women in Afghanistan are already barred from studying, most teaching, working in offices, and earning any money, even farm work and weaving and embroidery. UN officials warn of a mental health crisis, with a sharp rise in suicide attempts, because Afghan women “see death as preferable to living under current circumstances”. Taliban strikes fear as it combs cities to target women who worked in education, healthcare, social services and police. When Taliban’s medieval misogyny became official policy, not just regular democracies, even the 57-nation Organisation of Islamic Cooperation criticised it. Iran offered Afghan girls online university courses. China and Russia took a dim view, as did Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

But now, reactions have settled into a ritual of momentary outrage, which follows every new extreme. The supposedly internationalrules-based order seems to have little idea how to tackle the catastrophic fallout on women after the ignominious American departure from Afghanistan. Denying Afghanistan relief supplies because of their treatment of women is not an issue anyone’s talking about. Note that America, which abandoned Afghanistan, sanctioned Russia after it invaded Ukraine.

Afghanistan is now in the club of despair, alongside Yemen and Syria. Brics’ 2023 declaration made no mention of Afghanistan. There is much deliberation on the Ukraine paras in the proposed G20 communique. But where does Afghanistan feature? Taliban gets economic and humanitarian help. Neighbours are hedging their bets on fears of terror exports. Beijing’s reached out. New Delhi sent a “technical team” to Kabul. Gulf Arab states are looking at partial recognition of the Taliban state. But the question not yet framed is how to get Taliban to concede on basic liberties for Afghan women. What’s happening to women in Afghanistan is terrorism in another form. And no one cares.

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