What if you lived where it was illegal to go out without being fully covered, head to toe—even including your eyes? For most women in Afghanistan, that’s sadly normal. And everyday life for these women is getting even harder.
The Taliban government announced that it will close all nonprofit organizations that employ female workers. This comes two years after the government ordered nonprofits, sometimes called Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), to stop hiring women.
The terrorist group known as the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021. That group placed heavy restrictions on women and girls, curtailing education, some employment, and even many public appearances without male accompaniment.
Now that women can’t bring their skills to the workplace for these groups, it will be difficult for nonprofits to operate. And in the country well acquainted with war and poverty, there is much work to do.
“Half the population’s rights are being denied,” says United Nations spokesperson Florencia Soto Nino-Martinez. “Many [Afghans], not just women, are facing a humanitarian crisis.”
To outsiders, it may not make sense for the Taliban to prevent women from performing relief work. But for those familiar with the traditions of the terrorist group and other extreme Muslim governing structures, it’s also not surprising.
The Taliban banned women and girls from pursuing education beyond sixth grade. Private school officials must agree not to teach seventh- through twelfth-grade material to girls. Women can be stoned to death in public for crimes other nations consider minor—or not illegal at all. In many regions, women in public are required to wear full body coverings (called burqas), masks, and gloves.
A few days after Christmas, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhudzada said buildings can’t have windows looking into where a woman might sit or stand. If such windows already exist, homeowners will be required to install fences or walls.
What’s the point of these rules? The Taliban could be showing off its power to control and intimidate people. But the group is mainly enforcing Islamic law.
According to the Qur’an—Islam’s holy book—women and men can’t mix. It is “haram” or forbidden. Denying women basic rights is consistent with their religion as a means of imposing separation. Islam is a false religion that some say teaches that women and men are equal. But in practice, women are treated as less important and of less value than men.
Most Western countries reject that extreme separation of the sexes. But the idea that all people have equal dignity comes from the Bible.
Judaism and Christianity teach that humans are made in the image of God—male and female. (Genesis 1:27) Abusing either is abusing the image of God. Suppressing either is suppressing the image of God. In Christ, relationships can be purified so that men and women together can work for God’s kingdom and the prosperity of all.
Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart. — 1 Peter 1:22
Why? Afghanistan’s suppression of women shows the desperate need of its leaders and people to know the gospel. That’s the only lasting foundation for human rights.
