Short Sticks and Gender Equality
A couple weeks ago, I read an article in the Washington Post about the current state of affairs for women in Afghanistan. Things had already been looking grim: Women had been banned from university study. Girls were no longer allowed to be educated past the sixth grade.
Now the new religious code requires women to cover their faces—in addition to the head coverings they were already mandated to wear. It bans women from raising their voices, looking at men other than their husbands or relatives, riding in taxis alone, and even reciting the Quran—the religious text of Islam—in public.
The Taliban, of course, “maintains that women’s lives have improved under its three-year rule and frequently argue that restrictions on women are for their protection.”
Give me a break.
I am deeply aggrieved for these women. For this country—intent in silencing feminine intellect and doing its best to keep girls in ignorance.
Reading about their draconian existence brought to mind a certain American VP candidate who has recently spent time on public platforms pontificating about childless cat ladies and proclaiming that people should remain in a marriage until death does it part, even if the marriage is violent. Never mind that, statistically speaking, when a heterosexual marriage turns violent, it’s a helluva lot more likely that it is the woman who is getting the short end of the stick. Or the fist. Or a gun. And sometimes that stick/fist/gun is precisely what causes death to do its part.
Add to this the attempts to curtail birth control and access to quality healthcare when something goes awry with a pregnancy (not to mention access to safe, legal abortion), and I see a very real movement in our country to silence women and keep them in their place.
Maybe this sits well with men—but guys, beware: Today another Washington Post headline about Afghanistan grabbed my attention. “As Taliban starts restricting men, too, some regret not speaking up sooner.”
The Post reports, “New laws promulgated in late August mandate that men wear a fist-long beard, bar them from imitating non-Muslims in appearance or behavior, widely interpreted as a prohibition against jeans, and ban haircuts that are against Islamic law, which essentially means short or Western styles. Men are now also prohibited from looking at women other than their wives or relatives.”
In my experience, that last prohibition, alone, would alarm a lot of American men.
In recent weeks, Afghan religious morality officers have been knocking on doors to check up on men who haven’t attended mosque. Men fear losing their jobs for lack of facial hair, and barbers are refusing to trim beards. A man who works for the current regime reportedly had his salary withheld because his beard wasn’t long enough.
This pales in comparison to the maltreatment of women, but the crackdown on men has just begun. The Post reports, “In a society where a man’s voice is often perceived as far more powerful than a woman’s, some men now wonder whether they should have spoken up sooner to defend the freedoms of their wives and daughters.”
So, fellas—you might want to consider sticking up for your women now. If democracy goes down the drain, and the people in power make up the rules as they go along, your turn is likely coming. If you think you might want the support of women in that instance, you should stick up for them now—before you’re faced with the short end of the stick.