Background and History of Afghanistan:
Women's Rights under Islam

Since its early days, at a time when societies were overtly traditional and socially underdeveloped, Islam championed all movements to improve women’s status, and it guaranteed women the right to participate in all affairs of their society. A verse from the Quran dictates that “Men and women were made equal, the only difference in their worth is related to piety not gender.” Under Islam, women are equally responsible for the defense and development of their land, their religion and their society. Islam requires men and women, equally, to become educated. Women are permitted to leave their home to seek education and receive a high social standing for doing so. In early Islam, many women were prominent intellectuals and politicians.

Working is not obligatory for women, however, if a woman wants to work, any profession that is permissible for men is also permissible for women so long as it does not compromise her femininity or place her in an environment where her dignity would be undermined. One of the teachings of Islam, which is often misinterpreted by many Moslems, is the issue of the dress code. Under Islam both men and women are equally required to dress and behave modestly. The purpose of modest dress code or “hijab” is not to segregate women from their society

Contrary to the Islamic laws (Sharia), the Taliban’s version of Sharia forbade women from their social and political obligations. The Taliban’s “so called” Islamic decrees were not in accordance with the real teaching of Islam. Rather, it was the traditional beliefs and tribal practices from the rural Pashtun society which had been transferred and imposed on an urban population. This fact is well known among many Afghans and other Muslim around the world. The finding from PHR’s 1998 study of women’s health and human rights in Afghanistan, reports that 95% of the women participated in the study disagreed with Taliban policies.

Many scholars and religious leaders have publicly condemned Taliban for defaming Islam as a religion. Ayatlllah Jannati, a religious scholar and politician from the Islamic Republic of Iran, in a statement in defense of women’s rights said “Through their fossilized policies the Taliban stop girls from attending schools, stop women from working out of the their homes and all that in the name of Islam. What could be worse than committing violence, narrow-mindedness and limiting women’s rights and defaming Islam.” Ahmed Rashid, Pakistani journalist and Author, studied the origin of Taliban and met with many of their leaders. He described them as “…poorly tutored in Islamic and Afghan history, knowledge of the Sharia and the Quran, and the political and theoretical development in the Muslim world during the twentieth century.”

NEXT: Women's Access to Healthcare Services Under the Taliban