Link to article: Taliban sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence, says UN report | AP News
Taliban officials have been sending Afghan women to prison to protect them from gender-based violence. The 23 state sponsored women protection centers, where victims of gender-based violence could find refuge, are gone. This is because the Taliban believe that the centers were a “western concept” and eradicated them on that principle. If women don’t have male relatives, or the ones that they have are considered unsafe, they are jailed. Women are sent to prison for their protection “akin to how prisons have been used to accommodate drug addicts and homeless people in Kabul,” the report said. Women and girls have been increasingly restricted ever since the start of the Taliban’s rule of Afghanistan. They are only allowed to attend school until 6th grade, public spaces, and jobs. A dress code has also been implemented, along with women and girls now requiring a male escort if they travel 72 km (45 miles) from their homes. In July, a Taliban decree closed all beauty salons due to them being geared towards women. Even before the Taliban, Afghanistan has been considered to be one of the worst places to be born female because of the child marriage, violence, and abuse. Rights groups warned that the Taliban’s rule would allow for more violence against women and eliminate any legal protection they have. “Women are no longer working in the judiciary or law enforcement, not allowed to deal with crimes of gender-based violence, and only permitted to attend work when called upon by their male supervisors,” according to the U.N. report.
The Taliban’s decreased tolerance of any “western concepts” has negatively impacted the women in their state. This has been clear to see with their replacement of women protection facilities with jail time. Their increased resistance to western ideas has been caused by a number of factors. The UN and US’ involvement in their internal affairs in the form of sanctions and reporting, along with the US’ previous military involvement. Will the UN and the US increase their measures in order to stop the humans’ rights violations, or if they will back off due to lack of national interest? Will the Taliban continue the way they are and reject western ideas? Or will they stop in order to be recognized as Afghanistan’s legit government and to stop the pressure from the UN and the US?
The US’ repeated use of unilateral interventionist responses to global problems are partially responsible for the resentment that many countries hold towards the US. That same approach is one of many factors in why the Taliban are so anti-western culture. They are so against it, that they are willing to not only remove the women protection facilities, but also jail those that the centers were there to protect in the first place. Obviously, the Taliban’s resentment towards the US is not the only reason why they are mistreating women in their country to such a degree, but it is one reason that could help to explain their motives.