So women can’t go to university and receive a medical degree, and men can not give women medical attention? My heart goes out to Afghan women.
Do NOT defend this for being “a cultural thing.” Healthcare is one of the few cases where Islam explicitly goes “ignore the whole halal/haram thing for a while.” It’s plain sexism. They are oppressing women.
Religion is so fucking stupid.
The escalating bans are reaching new heights of absurdity, with officials in Balkh province in northern Afghanistan banned from calling female patients by their actual names. In May, officials reportedly ordered all hospitals, private practices and clinics to use the word “Bibi” instead of women’s names. They emphasised that this instruction must be observed even on medical prescriptions.
The other absurd restrictions notwithstanding, this feels like such a complete lack of respect for women’s personhood, humanity, existence even. Fuck the Taliban.
I am appalled at both the stupidity of this restriction and the reaction of the religion haters who jump on this.
Like, suddenly Afghanistan has become the only Muslim country representative of the faith and the other 96% of the Muslims who have always admitted patients regardless of their gender don’t count.
If you can’t see that this decision is cultural and uses religion as an excuse then you have some reflecting to do. Criticize these idiots, not the religion.
I am sympathetic and agree that Islamic extremism is too readily taken to represent Islam broadly. However the argument that this is more “cultural” than “religious” doesn’t quite work for Afghanistan because it is actually a true theocracy where the clergy govern and hold ultimate political power. So there’s no “non-religion” entity that’s merely using religion. In this case, government policy and religious dictates are one and the same.
I wouldn’t say the religion in question is quite the same religion practiced by most other Muslims, more an extreme denomination
for all those who wanted america out of afghanistan glad you got your wish 😔
This is happening because the US invaded Afghanistan.
Unless the plan was to make Afghanistan the 51st state, this was always going to be the result.
are the women in saudi covered up because of the us as well?
Yes? Do you think kingdom of Saudi Arabia would still exist if it weren’t for the US? The US props this stuff up all over West Asia.
The Taliban ruled Afghanistan from 96 until the US invaded. Now they’re back in power.
And how and why were they able to obtain power in '96? Because of prior imperial meddling!
The Taliban wouldn’t have been able to stay in power with policies like this if they’d been in power for those entire 30 years. Eventually they’d have collapsed under the contradictions or reformed to be less restrictive.
Prior meddling from the Soviet Union.
Didn’t sowjet union invade afghanistan specifically to counter this medieval idiots?
And Saudi (which really is just an extension of the US) supporting resistance fighters like Osama Bin Laden.
Good thing that imperial boomerang never came back!
No, this isn’t happening just because of that. It’s happening because of religion. Nothing more nothing less. What the USSR and the US did over there doesn’t excuse what the religious are doing to it now.
All their neighbors have the same religion, why are they different?
The obvious difference between Afghanistan and their neighbors is they were invaded and occupied. It isn’t an “excuse” but simply an explanation. Reactionary policy like this is a reaction to imperialism; without invasion and prior meddling the Taliban wouldn’t have the political support to implement a policy this backwards.
This won’t last in the long run, a policy like this will collapse their country. Either their population will start to crater as half their population is unable to go to the doctor, or women and the people who love them will start picking up guns. Reactionaries can’t actually reproduce society, it’s always a circular firing squad with them.
Most of their neighbors who are ruled by religious fanatics are the same…the Saudis we are allies with and they’re bad with women’s rights as well. What’s your excuse there? We’ve never bombed them.
Stop defending religious extremist with “well they have been bombed”…most countries on the planet have been invaded or bombed or been at war at one point or another.
Ukraine is actively being invaded and they don’t seem to be taking women back to the stone age.
Just stop with the excuses.
The US props them up!
No the Saudis have oil money they don’t need our money.
But that doesn’t explain your point that Afghanistan is a place that is ultra conservative towards Basically anyone but a man…you said they’re like that because of the US bombing them. The Saudis are just as bad towards women’s rights and we don’t bomb them…so what’s your excuse for their treatment of women?
That’s rather a limited consideration of all the factors.
Universally, the more rural places are, the more religious conservative they are. The poorer a place is the more strongly religious people are. The more chaotic the situation is, the more strongly people turn to religion (or other existential anchors). This is true even in developed countries. Cities are liberal/blue, and rural areas are conservative/red.
The poorer a place is the more strongly religious people are.
Do you think places are poor by accident?
In the case of Afghanistan this, too, is imperialism. Underdevelopment is a policy decision, and they know whose fault it is.
Yeah, we shouldn’t be blind to the harm imperialism and colonialism has done (and continues to do in places like Syria) to the world… I just don’t think that’s always the only reason for everything, though it certainly is a major reason for a lot of things.
Everything comes down to the material conditions. It’s not all imperialism specifically, development in rural areas is simply difficult in general, but the only way to sustain a backwards reactionary force like the Taliban is through intentional impoverishment.
Without that, I suspect Afghanistan might look more like Iran. Perhaps still conservative, not backwards.
