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Women are equal to men only after death in Afghanistan
KABUL. Nov 12: Only in death are the men and women of Afghanistan equal, segre-f;ated since the purist Taliban slamlc militia seized power 14 months ago. death is an equaliser. and their bodies are buried side by side, reports Reuter.
The graveyards of Afghanistan, huge urban parks on the fringes of major towns or small plots in every hamlet, are one of the few places where men and women can be found in such Intimate, open proximity and In such numbers.
The cemeteries overflow with victims of a war that is still going on for control of one of the world s 10 poorest countries. and for the hearts and minds of a population that has known little but conflict for nearly two decades.
Fresh green flags, the standard of Islam, fly over many of the graves, a symbol of a sha-heea" (martyr) who has fallen In the war. This flags mean they were members of the Taliban who say they want to create the purest Islamic state on earth.
Nothing denotes the sex of the deceased except perhaps, a headstone if the family was wealthy enough to buy one, husbands and wives, fathers and daughters are burled beside each other.
But In life it is another matter, since seizing Kabul last year, the Taliban have made it their mission to enforce an interpretation of Islam that has few parallels in the modern world or In any neighbouring Muslim state.
At the heart of their reading of Islamic scripture Is a belief that women can. by their very presence, lead men to sin and deviate from a pure life of prayer, the mosque and the Ko-
To catch sight of women, argue the Mullahs directing the Taliban crusade, is to make men commit adultery in their minds. So they have driven a temptation out of sight.
Burqa leads Taliban control measures among the Taliban's first acts was to order women to wear the burqa. an all-enveloping. head-to-toe shroud out of which women can see through a gauze window, but cannot be
All women who venture on to the battered streets of Kabul, and few do, wear the burqa.
Seen from a far. the garment hides all sign of physical movement and makes the wearer look like a tented deportment teacher gliding along.
Their window on the world is the size of a bank note, often smaller. Women can see out. but it Impossible to see in.
Other measures are less superficial. Women s schools have been closed and women are banned from work. The effect has been to empty the streets of women and to confine them to home.
Women cannot ride in a car unaccompanied. They cannot apply for a passport alone but must join a family member's.
They do not speak in public. Even the women beggars who confront foreigners in the street say nothing, their male counterparts.
The segregation of half, or possibly more, of an estimated 14 million Afghans has caused anger in the industrialised West. But in Afghanistan it has slipped into effect as the Taliban have consolidated their grip on power.
Many Afghan women wear the burqa by choice, as armour against the lascivious looks of men starved of the sight of women But Kabul was an island of relative modernity before the Taliban, and what emancipated women think is an enigma.
Foreigners rarely visit or try to talk to Afghan women. To do so would risk the wrath of the Taliban, residents say.
There is no women interest group, no woman among the technocrats who now sit behind the desks of the shell-pocked buildings of Kabul and exercise authority.
Real power resides with the Taliban's spiritual leader. Mullah Mohammed Omar, the Amir Ul-Momineen or leader of the faithful, who resides in the southern city of Kandahar.
There was a special ministry for women's affairs under the regime that Taliban ousted, it Is now another empty, crumbling Kabul edifice and is sealed behind high walls. All traces of its function have been ripped down.
But the plight of woman has posed complex problems for the United Nations and aid agencies trying to help a nation that has few equals in the league table of poverty.
Women, aid workers argue, have suffered equally with men in Afghanistan. But in helping them, they say they are hamstrung by the Taliban s insistence that the two sexes be treated separately and within its interpretation of the Koran.
In emergencies from Rwanda to Bosnia, women have proved an essential part of the emergency effort. Many are recruited to help foreign agencies as nurses, administrators and teachers.
But in Afghanistan, few women are allowed to hold aid Jobs and only in the medical sector and they are barred from holding senior positions. The men get the best aid employment.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), whose Afghan operation is its biggest in the world, says it has reached agreement with the Taliban that women can get treated in all Kabuls hospitals, instead of one reserved for women.
But this week there were few signs of women going to any of the three non-segregated hospitals. The reasons can be guessed, aid workers say
Relief workers say they are trapped between the need for emergency relief and a commitment to equality in the UN's human rights charter that guides world emergency opera-
Governments. too, can only voice alarm. Only Pakistan. Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates officially recognise the Taliban as a legitimate government.
The New York Times said in an editorial this week that. Western governments must make It clear that continued to oppression will cost the Taliban aid and harm its bid to win Afghanistan’s seat at the United Nations currently held by the previous government."
It is doubtful that the Taliban heard the message. The only foreign newspapers readily available in Kabul are ones ' from Pakistan and they receive strict Taliban attention.
Somewhere between Pakistan and the Afghan capital, a censor routinely goes through* each copy of the newspaper blacking out any pictures of women that might lead men astray.