From Iraq to Afghanistan to the US, women’s basic freedoms are being eroded as governments begin rolling back existing laws.
The ban on Afghan women speaking publicly was the latest measure introduced by the Taliban, which took back control of the country in 2021. The ban from August included singing, reading aloud, reciting poetry and even laughing outside their homes. ,
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, which enforces one of the most radical interpretations of Islamic law, enforces these rules. They are part of a broader set of “evil and virtue” laws that severely restrict women’s rights and freedoms. Women are even banned from reading the Quran to other women in public.
Over the past three years, the Taliban in Afghanistan have taken away many basic rights from women living there, allowing them to do very little work.
Starting in 2021, the Taliban began imposing restrictions on girls receiving education, starting with a ban on coeducation and then a ban on girls attending secondary schools. Subsequently, schools for visually impaired girls were closed in 2023 and it was made mandatory for girls in classes four to six (nine to 12 years) to cover their faces while going to school.
Women can no longer enroll in universities or obtain degree certificates at the national level, or follow midwifery or nursing training in the Kandahar region. Women are no longer allowed to become flight attendants or work outside the home. Bakeries run by women have now been banned in the capital Kabul. Women are now mostly unable to earn money or leave their homes. In April 2024, the Taliban in Helmand province asked media outlets to also refrain from broadcasting women’s voices.
Afghanistan ranks last in the Women, Peace and Security Index and officials at the United Nations and elsewhere have called it “gender apartheid.” Afghan women are risking their lives to protest against the Taliban, facing surveillance, harassment, attacks, arbitrary detention, torture and deportation.
Many diplomats discuss how important it is to “engage” with the Taliban, yet this has not stopped attacks on women’s rights. When diplomats “engage”, they focus on counter-terrorism, counter-narcotics, trade deals, or hostage returns. Despite all that has happened to Afghan women in a short period of time, critics suggest it rarely features on diplomats’ priority lists.
Iraq’s age of consent
Meanwhile, in Iraq, on August 4, 2024, an amendment to Iraq’s 1959 Personal Status Law, which will potentially lower the age of consent for marriage from 18 to nine years (or 15 years old with the judge and parental permission) ) was proposed by a member of. Supported by Raad al-Maliki in parliament and conservative Shia factions in the government.
This law would allow family law matters – such as marriage – to be decided by religious authorities. This change could not only legalize child marriage but also take away women’s rights related to divorce, child custody and inheritance.
Iraq already has a high rate of early marriage, with 7% of girls married by age 15, and 28% before the legal age of 18.
Unregistered marriages, which are not legally recorded in court but are arranged through religious or tribal authorities, prevent girls from accessing civil rights, and leave women and girls vulnerable to exploitation, abuse, and neglect. They have limited options to get justice.
Many women’s groups have already mobilized against this law. But the amendment has passed its second reading in Parliament. If introduced, it could pave the way for further amendments that would deepen communal divisions and move the country away from a unified legal system. It would also be a particularly troubling step towards protecting children’s rights and gender equality.
Abortion rights in America
Meanwhile, women’s access to abortion has declined significantly in the US over the past few years. In late 2021, the US was officially branded a retreating democracy by an international think tank.
Six months later, the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, which had protected the constitutional right to abortion for nearly 50 years, was overturned. This led to a flood of restrictive laws, with more than a quarter of US states enacting complete bans or severe restrictions on abortion.
Republican US Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene suggested in May 2022 that women should remain unmarried if they do not want to become pregnant. If only all women had that option. In fact, a sexual assault occurs every 68 seconds in America. One in five American women has been the victim of attempted rape or completed rape. From 2009–13, US child protective services agencies found strong evidence that 63,000 children per year were victims of sexual abuse.
These developments reflect a disturbing pattern. There is evidence from Donald Trump’s first term that women’s rights may decline further in his second presidency. During his previous term significant efforts were made to weaken health care access, with his foreign policy reinstating the “Global Gag Rule”, which restricts women’s access to reproductive health care around the world through funding conditions. Was banned.
weakness of women’s rights
If the world can tolerate the Taliban’s abuses, Iraq’s restrictive laws, and US restrictions on abortion access, it reveals the fragility of women’s and girls’ rights globally, and how easy it is for them to be taken away.
The UN agency, UN Women, says it could take another 286 years to close the global gender gap in legal protection. No country has yet achieved gender equality in terms of gender pay gap, legal equality and level of social inequality. Women and girls in every corner of the world face discrimination and it is getting worse. But despite everything, women keep protesting.
(Author: Hind Elhinnawi, Senior Lecturer, School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University)
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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