The imminent danger for Afghanistan’s women and minorities
International | August 20, 2021
The scenes of chaos unfolding at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, as thousands of Afghans try to escape their country, illustrates the fear gripping the country after the Taliban took over the country. Women and religious minorities that bore the brunt of the Taliban’s brutality during the 1990s, when the Taliban were last in power, feel particularly vulnerable.
As the Taliban marched through a Shia neighborhood of Kabul on Sunday, they pulled down religious banners marking the Shia observance of the martyrdom of prophet Muhammad’s grandson, Imam Husain. The Taliban’s interpretation of Islam sees Shias as heretics and their religious observances as ‘Haram,’ or forbidden.
Contrary to assertions by Western diplomats who engaged in talks with Taliban representatives, setting in motion the current debacle, there is nothing ‘moderate’ about the new Taliban. Their prejudices and intolerant outlook seem still to be the same as in the past.
Older Afghans have frightening memories of the Taliban’s last stint in power. Those who were too young in the 1990s will quickly understand the ugly reality unfurling before our eyes…. (Excerpts from the Hill)