According to Zehra Yılmaz, Taliban’s take over Afghanistan brought the women’s movements closer than ever. In this interview, Yılmaz discusses the position of new generation Islamic organizations regarding women’s rights and the new parameters of women’s resistance.
After the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the future of women, who suffered the most from the 20-year war in the country, still remains uncertain under the Taliban rule.
Despite the Taliban’s ‘We have changed’ rhetoric, there are many reports of rights violations against women.
Specialized in global Islam, Assoc. Dr. Zehra Yılmaz talks about the latest developments in Afghanistan and the new generation Islamic organizations’ view of women.
According to her, women in Afghanistan have 20 years of experience, women rights gains and international connections, and that it is not possible to erase them immediately. Yılmaz says the Taliban will definitely feel serious pressure:
“In 2001, when NATO intervened in Afghanistan, they said, “We will liberate women in burqas.” Even though they say they have changed, the Taliban also highlights “They will not make any concessions regarding the burqa.” They say they will recognize women’s rights within the framework of Sharia law. In this case, to say “we have changed” does not seem very convincing. Afghan women are also very worried as they do not find it convincing anyway.
While there will be a “change”, it looks like it will only happen in some limited areas. For example, encouraging women’s employment in professions such as medicine may be open to women, especially in order to reduce female mortality during childbirth.
In fact, this problem was not overcome by the post-Taliban administration in Afghanistan. It is known that two-thirds of births take place at home in the country where 75 percent of them live in rural areas.
According to 2019 data in Afghanistan, an average of 4,500 women die annually during pregnancy and childbirth, and one in 13 children dies before reaching the age of one. It is possible that a certain amount of space can be opened for women in certain professions so as not to make such problems more chronic, but the problem of freedoms and rights that women face in Afghanistan today is much greater.”
“Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan has brought women’s movements closer than ever”
Yılmaz states that as the US occupation in Afghanistan to “save” women has ended and the administration is handed over to the Taliban, it was once again confirmed that women cannot trust neither the West nor Islamist men:
“How both regimes instrumentalize women is a case in point. The earliest consequence of this apparent situation has prompted women to run their networks of solidarity with women at a global level. The Eşik Platform in Turkey was one of the organizations that took the lead in this. As soon as the Taliban took over the administration, the first dissident voice from Afghanistan was raised by women.
Seraj Mahboub’s cry out against all world leaders, when the Taliban began to rule, resonated all over the world. This was very important. Because it is not only Islamists who have become authoritarian since 2010, but this authoritarianism is rapidly increasing in Europe and America. For this reason, the struggle against authoritarian regimes on the basis of women’s common struggle comes to the fore day by day. Regardless of their ideology or geography, in the end, authoritarian regimes oppress women and LGBT+s. I think Taliban’s take over has brought the women’s movements closer than ever.”
Women’s resistance
Stating that the Taliban should clearly reveal what they will do in order to answer the question of where and how women will take part in the resistance against the Taliban, Yılmaz said that two issues will determine the women’s resistance:
“Ultimately, the harshness of the government will also harden the resistance. But it is possible to talk about two issues that will determine the women’s resistance. The first is the internal dynamics of Afghan women. There are two dimensions to this, one is women staying in Afghanistan and the other is women leaving Afghanistan. It is very important how the solidarity between the two will turn out to be. An impact that would change the nature of the resistance can be created.
Another issue is that especially young men in Afghanistan lay down their weapons and flee the country, leaving behind women and children. It was an image that subverted all values attributed to masculinity in the Middle East.
The ‘protective male’ model has collapsed. In the nationalist discourse, tension has always been present between the national interest and the women’s movement. In this sense, men, the “protector” of the nation, have always demanded “sacrifice” from women. However, the example of Afghanistan revealed that the masculinity that demanded this sacrifice was destroyed. This destruction is likely to open up space for women in the resistance against the Taliban.”
Emphasizing that Islam has ceased to be a negotiable subject which can be ‘modarated’, Yılmaz says that the issue of women lies at the heart of the tension in Islamist movements whether radical or moderate.
“Islamism, whatever it may be, is ultimately an ideology that is ontologically opposed to Westernism.
We also saw as in the case of US war in Afghanistan that the West attributes different meanings to the women’s issues. Also the Islamists attribute different meaning to the women’s issue while resisting to the West. This dichotomy is constantly generating each other.
Adopting an emancipatory policy on women’s rights was one of the most challenging issues in the negotiations with the West when the Muslim Brotherhood came to power. Between 2000-2020, the space for discussions in the context of women’s rights in Islam within the framework of the “moderate Islam” was created.
At the same time, the AKP, which comes from the Islamist tradition, paved the way for legal changes that empower women in Turkey as part of its negotiation with the West during its early administration. The changes made in the Civil Code in 2001 were a pretty good development for a Muslim-majority country. Signing the Istanbul Convention was also a part of this negotiation.
But after 2010, the defeat of the Muslim Brotherhood, especially in Egypt, and the rise of a radical organisations like ISIS in the region, made Islam no longer a negotiable, ‘moderate’ subject for the West.”
AKP: From moderate Islam to authoritarianism
Yılmaz summarizes the AKP’s stance towards women’s rights in Turkey over the past 20 years as follows:
“As a result of the rising women’s movement in Turkey in the 2000s, Islamist women also have also become stronger and diversified. The support of Islamist women was also important in the AKP’s electoral success.
But for Turkey, I think the most important sign that authoritarianism has expanded to include Islamist women was the establishment of Women and Democracy Association (KADEM). Because authoritarian regimes do not like diversity and those who act independently, even if they share the same ideology.
KADEM was an important tool to manage Islamist women in Turkey under one roof. When KADEM was established, many Islamist women organizations either dissolved or began to act under its rule. Islamist women who are out of the equation, on the other hand, were marginalized.
The first 10 years of the AKP were a good example of the ‘moderate Islam’ project, but with the start of the authoritarianism process, finally it resulted in withdrawing from the Istanbul Convention overnight.
This move, as everyone confirms, was a move by the AKP to rally its Islamist base.”