{"id":74953,"date":"2024-11-21T00:14:42","date_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:14:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/world.edu\/?p=74953"},"modified":"2024-11-21T00:15:55","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:15:55","slug":"how-womens-basic-rights-and-freedoms-are-being-eroded-all-over-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/how-womens-basic-rights-and-freedoms-are-being-eroded-all-over-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"How women\u2019s basic rights and freedoms are being eroded all over the world"},"content":{"rendered":"

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From Iraq to Afghanistan to the US, basic freedoms for women are being eroded as governments start rolling back existing laws.<\/p>\n

Just a few months ago a ban on Afghan\u00a0women speaking in public<\/a>\u00a0was the latest measure introduced by the Taliban, who took back control of the country in 2021. From August the ban included singing, reading aloud, reciting poetry and even laughing outside their homes.<\/p>\n

The Taliban\u2019s ministry for the propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice, which implements one of the most radical interpretations of Islamic law, enforces these rules. They are part of a broader set of\u00a0\u201cvice and virtue\u201d<\/a>\u00a0laws that severely restrict women\u2019s rights and freedoms. Women are even banned\u00a0from reading the Quran<\/a>\u00a0out loud to other women in public.<\/p>\n

In the past three years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken away many basic rights from women who live there, so that there\u2019s very little that they are allowed to do.<\/p>\n

From 2021,\u00a0the Taliban started<\/a>\u00a0introducing restrictions on girls receiving education, starting with a ban on coeducation and then a ban on girls attending secondary schools. This was followed by closing blind girls\u2019 schools in 2023, and making it mandatory for girls in grades four to six (ages nine to 12) to cover their faces on the way to school.<\/p>\n

Women can no longer attend universities or receive a degree certificate nationally, or follow midwifery or nursing training in the Kandahar region.\u00a0Women are no longer allowed<\/a>\u00a0to be flight attendants, or to take a job outside the home. Women-run bakeries in the capital Kabul have now been banned. Women are mostly now unable to earn any money, or leave their homes. In April 2024, the Taliban in Helmand province told media outlets to even refrain from airing women\u2019s voices.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan is ranked last on the\u00a0Women, Peace and Security Index<\/a>\u00a0and officials at the UN and elsewhere have called it\u00a0\u201cgender apartheid\u201d<\/a>. Afghan women are putting their lives on the line \u2014 facing surveillance, harassment, assault, arbitrary detention, torture and exile \u2014 to\u00a0protest against<\/a>\u00a0the Taliban.<\/p>\n

Many diplomats discuss how important it is to\u00a0\u201cengage\u201d<\/a>\u00a0with the Taliban, yet this has not stopped the assault on women\u2019s rights. When diplomats \u201cengage\u201d, they tend to focus on counter-terrorism, counternarcotics, business deals, or\u00a0hostage<\/a>\u00a0returns. Despite everything that has happened to Afghan women\u00a0over a short period<\/a>, critics suggest this rarely makes it onto diplomats\u2019 priority list.
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