It’s December 2022 and the Taliban — Afghanistan’s ass-backward and uber-conservative Islamic government — has once again decided to ban education for girls. This includes elementary school all the way through higher ed. They literally sent little girls home from school and told them not to come back.
Let me just repeat this for the folks in the back who don’t hear so well:
THEY BANNED EDUCATION FOR GIRLS.
AGAIN.
This disgusting regime went a step farther and banned all women from even teaching in schools. Those women who were fortunate enough to get an education during a period when the Taliban was not in charge of the country’s 40 million residents are now unable share their knowledge and empower future generations. It will be left to the men — likely the same men who are now preventing girls from receiving an education. The same men who are ensuring women are second (or third?) class citizens of Afghanistan. The same men who aspire to be virtuous in the name of Allah, yet disregard a basic tenet of Islamic teachings:
Islam urges both men and women to seek knowledge.
This article published on 12/22/22 in the Wall Street Journal does a great job of exposing the Taliban’s lies and miscues regarding girls’ education through the years.
Most importantly, as the rest of the world fights to make progress with common-sense concepts such as gender equality for pay, for work opportunities, for education, for freedom, for healthcare decision-making (yep, I went there), and all things equality between men and women, here comes Afghanistan and the Taliban walking alone and putting progress on hold for millions of girls.
I would never bet on Afghanistan becoming a major world power any time soon, or even a country that I’d want to visit or promote in any way, but they’re literally putting their future at risk by not empowering half of their children to get an education while the rest of the world speeds forward.
In the United States, women now make up the majority of university students.
Not only do more women now attend college than men, but they’re more likely to graduate and receive degrees. According to the National Center for Educational Statistics, in 1970, men received 57 percent of both two- and four-year degrees, 61 percent of master’s degrees, and 90 percent of doctorates. By 2019, women were earning the majority of degrees at all three levels.
Put aside the practical issue of educating your citizens for a minute, something that not doing should be considered an existential threat in many ways, but the reality is that TODAY it’s a humanitarian crisis that needs to be addressed.
The lack of equal treatment when it comes to basic education is going to hurt in the long-run, but it’s also going to create a psychological crisis. Granted, it has to be incredibly difficult already being female in any hardcore Islamic country, but these girls are going to face mental illness and confidence issues for the rest of their lives. And someday they will be called on to raise children (including boys) without any sense of independence or confidence of their own. It’s a horrible cycle that spirals downward.
I recognize there are issues outside of Afghanistan. Saudi Arabia, the oil-rich darling of the global economy, has significant issues in gender equality. Many African countries where tribal rule is stronger than federal governments have restrictions for girls. Hell, even North America and European countries still have significant issues in gender equality, but at least we’re committed to making progress. Saudi Arabia tries to hide their issues, and Afghanistan blatantly flaunts its inequality to the rest of the world.
And rampant crime against women and girls is an entire argument for another day: rape, trafficking, slavery, physical abuse, and more. “Fixed marriages” in many modernized countries where underage girls are promised to or actually married off to older men where they are forced to have children of their own is a crime against modern progress. Again, tradition and culture are the exact opposite of human progress.
These girls deserve better. Really, every kid deserves a fair chance for a better quality of life than previous generations. There’s no scientific or rational reason for holding any one gender (or ethnicity) back. It all comes down to culture or religious doctrine.
Time to go. Time to change. Time to make progress for every kid, everywhere.
When will the rest of the world finally be “man enough” to help these girls in Afghanistan get a fair chance?
