The Taliban issued a manifesto on its website on Friday — and it didn’t mention anything about education or work for women. “For as long as the United States and other foreigners are not in Afghanistan, women are always free,” the organization said. However, the manifesto provides some further details on the “popular systems” that will keep women in their place — and it’s fair to say it’s an abject failure. It provides “weddings,” which “are a triumph of medieval things”, and “a sacred rite of union”, so that women will never have to ask their men for permission to marry. It also lists “family affairs” and the “family honour,” meaning those women who have had consensual sex, as well as the jihad of honour and the “glorious caliphate.” Such as bringing birth control, “complete freedom” and domestic workers into households, “you can live in freedom”. It does not include school or work.
This is what a vision of Afghan women’s lives looks like. It’s exactly what we’ve been condemning for years.https://t.co/ZGDEg4rw2s pic.twitter.com/w7AkbECBG0 — Coalition For A Free & Fair Afghanistan (@FreeFairAf) May 3, 2019
The manifesto seeks to enshrine the “total submission and obedience of women to the male authority”, a precondition that has been vehemently condemned by international observers and by women’s groups at home. A spokesman for the Joint United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan said the manifesto was “part of a troubling trend” of the Taliban renouncing rights for women and girls in Afghanistan.