6mo ago

Taliban 'do not see women as human', says Malala in Pakistan

Summary

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai condemned the Taliban’s treatment of women at a Pakistan summit on girls’ education in Muslim communities, stating, "The Taliban do not see women as human beings."

She criticized their policies banning Afghan girls from education and work as "gender apartheid" and un-Islamic.

Afghanistan is the only country banning education for girls beyond grade six, affecting 1.5 million girls.

Malala urged Muslim leaders to challenge these practices and advocate for girls' education globally.

The Taliban declined to attend or comment.

151 comments

ahhh the wonders of religion. humanity's self-induced blight
- I can assure you that misogyny is not a result of religion, religion is just used to excuse it.
  
  And because it's excused it's allowed to exist.
- It’s the sickness and its own cure! Just like other drug addictions.
- Ah yes, but other ideologies which have been destructive are not? I hope you'll be consistent in pointing out the secular states of today continue to wreak havoc, death and destruction in the middle east and Africa. (Let's not forget colonialism)
  And the secular atheist communist states of Russia and China, those didn't commit ethnic cleansing and killed millions of people?
  I'll just mention the destruction that the USSR brought to Kazakhstan that lingers to this day as an example.
- She criticized their policies banning Afghan girls from education and work as "gender apartheid" and un-Islamic.
  Says right there it is opposite of what the religion teaches?!
  At least wait until there is an article that confirms your bias to spit your poison, dude.
  
  Religion is not what religion teaches.
  Look what they do, not what they say.
  
  well, it isn't, so that's that
- Why do you jump to religion and not simply conclude that the Talibans are massive incels? You do realize that out of two billion Muslims only the Taliban are doing this shit right? Malala is calling them un-Islamic for a reason.
  
  religion is in itself a ridiculous premise, and the type is largely irrelevant (islam/christianity).
  they are a disease that should be eradicated. humanity will never move forward with such archaic ideas.
  
  Because their religion literally teaches them to treat women like shit?
  And it’s not only them doing this. They all have shit women’s rights records.
When incels have complete control, basically.
- It's probably good they have basic religious differences or Republicans and the Taliban would have joined forces by now.
- Statistically speaking you are wrong. There are around a billion Muslim and a few thousands of Taliban.
- They're also both religious fundamentalists who have very little care for religious scripture but love using religious imagery as a tool of oppression, huh they really are alike.
Hey according to some that's okay, because at least they know what a woman is:
That's okay I'm sure her fellow "women's rights" defenders wouldn't do something awful like make fun of Malala's experiences:
- Ofcourse JK Rowling likes that first tweet. What a vile piece of excrement
  
  J.K. Rowling invented “fragile femininity.”
  She loses her shit any time anyone tries to broaden or complexity the narrow little definition she is stuck on. She just can’t handle it. A woman has to mean exactly what she says it does, or her femininity is under attack. Such an asshole.
- Jfc people are gross
She isn't wrong. Imagine not seeing half of the population as human, even though they carried you and everyone who has ever been born in the womb for 9 months and gave birth to you.
- I live in the United States. I don't have to imagine, I can see it up close.
  
  Imagine comparing the situation in the united States, where women have favorable hiring and scholarship status, to the Taliban state where women are literally property and not allowed to get a job or education under threat of death. Like actual death, not someone online telling you something rude.
  
  JFC can you guys stop acting like your country is the worst place to ever exist? The situation for American women is nowhere as bad as it is for Afgan women. (yet)
  
  Literally can't be more wrong
"The Taliban declined to attend or comment."
Well yeah, they don't think a person was talking.
Really how is this news? The Taliban don't think woman are people, and water is wet.
We armed the wrong sex in Afghanistan.....
Religious bigots in power, what to expect?
The f'n MAGAts and the Taliban share a lot in common.
- There's a reason they call 'em "Ya'll-Qaeda" lol
- Capitalists are more efficient than both.
  They don't see almost anyone as human.
  
  Haha I'm going to assume the comment wasn't giving the Taliban or Ya'll-qaeda a pass with a whataboutism.
  They don't see almost anyone as human.
  But it's okay you can drop the "almost". To them, humans are just another speculative resource that responds to market manipulation! XD
  
  capitalism is what broke up gender norms; if a woman or a man presses a button for 8 hours what does a capitalist care?
If the US had not invaded Afghanistan and done such a shitjob the Taliban would have been overthrown by now. The Taliban was highly unpopular in 2001, but thanks to the US fucking everything up, they regained more land than they had otherwise by 2017 or so.
- Nothing's certain with alternate scenarios. Perhaps Taliban would have eventually fallen, perhaps not. In the meanwhile, countless people will suffer under those goat fuckers.
- But it was very profitable for weapons dealers so that makes everything OK.
- The Taliban was highly unpopular in 2001,
  Fuck's sake, the Northern Alliance was hard-pressed in 2001.
Sometimes the smartest person in the room is a woman. By refusing to educated women, they are limiting the intellectual growth and capabilities of their own culture. Cultures with fair, balanced rules, and systems of living, for everyone regardless of race, gender, or any other thing people imagine matters, will have a stronger society in almost all aspects from that alone. Because most of the things people imagine matter. Don't. In fact, what matters, is the actual intellectual capabilities of the individual, not how you or anyone else perceives them.
- In fairness it's the Taliban. They're not exactly renowned for being interested in intellectual growth.
She's fearless and relentless... I really hope nothing happens to her.
She isn't wrong to say this.
The word “chattel” sometimes gets used in conversations like this one, and I think we should stop doing that. It’s a confusing word that most people don’t understand, and is often confused with “cattle” ie cows. I mean just look at this definition:
Chattel is a catch-all category of property associated with movable goods . At common law , chattel included all property other than real property . Examples include leases, animals, and money.
TBH I think “livestock” is a better word all around. It means live animal property, which is accurate. People know what it means. And it has the right negative connotations, too: associating human beings with pigs and chickens, as if they’re on the same level.
Good, we see Taliban as demons wearing human skin since time immemorial.
- You mean except for when you guys were training and arming them right?
  
  Do you think the person you're replying to is somehow responsible for Taliban being in power?
  
  Who is "you guys" and when did this arming and training happen?
  Not because I doubt it happened, but because it's happened enough times with enough people that you need to be specific...
Something about the "not human" phrasing is bothering me. I get what they're trying to convey and I don't dispute it, but it also feels inaccurate in a way that might lead us to miss important aspects of the situation.
I'm sure if you asked an Afghan man how many people live in his home, he'd include women and children in his answer. So I don't think they literally see women as a separate species.
My gut feeling is more like Afghan men don't generally believe in the concept of human rights, as opposed to separate sets of rights for men and women. Hell, they may not even believe in the Western concept of rights at all, and may think only in terms of things like religious obligations and cultural norms.
I wonder if there's a different phrasing we could use that has the same emotional impact but doesn't suggest questionable conclusions about the world view of Afghans.
- I’m sure if you asked an Afghan man how many people live in his home, he’d include women and children in his answer.
  I'm not so sure. I have zero basis to think it's one way or another, but given all the oniony-but-actually-pure-facts headlines of these recent… months? I'm definitely not certain of it.
  
  you shouldn't base your thinking on western news which generally have an incentive to exaggerate everything related to Afghanistan and taliban.
  there's a recent video from a non-muslim youtuber called Arab going to the taliban and vlogging his experience, from what I saw in his video the taliban aren't as bad as the headlines suggest, I don't really like the guy but the videos are good.
  the fact that they don't give girls the same rights as boys are facts, but there's more to it than just "girl less than boy" as the media portrays it, you need to understand the culture more before coming to conclusions like that the afghans think of women as subhuman.
Headline/statement improvement note for your online discussing:
"Taliban do not understand that women are human", or "Taliban continue to refuse to acknowledge that women are human".
Don't imply a possibility of correctness that isn't there.
- Rule 1 in this community includes, "title must match the article headline." OP did as we request.
"The Taliban do not see women as human beings."
Not many do.
Now what?
I’m sure that women don’t see the taliban as being human either. Wonder which one of the two will survive the other’s inevitable extinction.
- Suggesting that Muslim men love to fuck camels is definitely not perpetuating any racist stereotypes at all.
She can change taliban to Islam at large. Other Arab countries would be doing it to if they thought they could get away with it.
- It's not "Islam at large", look at Iran pre-revolution, or Iraq under Saddam Hussein. They had a multitude of problems, but Islamic fundamentalism wasn't one of them.
  
  You don't even need to leave Afghanistan. Afghanistan before the Soviets invaded was a very different place.
  https://www.cnn.com/2014/06/05/asia/gallery/afghan-women-past-present/index.html
- Other Arab
  Didn't tell on yourself until the second sentence this time, well done
- You think the Taliban and Pakistan and Afghanistan are... Arab? Why don't you believe that they are Pashtuns?
I would like to point out while she may be right about this, she has been very silent on whats going on in Palestinian and when she was called out on it she released a vague PR statement. She is compromised.
- This account frequently defends Israel for those out of the loop.
The dichotomy of the west running a literal concentration camp in Gaza and then taking the moral high ground on Afghanistan as if that is where human life is not valued is hillarious.
What do hamas think of women?
- Is this supposed to be some gotcha that justifies Israel's genocide? Because what does Israel think of all of the women they are killing? And in Syria as well.
  
  No, but there's nuance. Hamas is not worth supporting under any circumstance. I believe the Arabs and Muslims in Gaza and the West Bank should be able to live peacefully with all non Arabs and non Muslims in the region. Hamas does not want that. Hamas does not want peace with non Muslims, especially Jews.
- What do hamas think of women?
  What does Israel think of all the women they raped and killed then? And what does it think of children too, since they killed more children then any other country in 2024?
  Gtfo with your Zionist talking points
  
  Where is my love for the Israeli state? I believe all peaceful people should be allowed to live, and there are lots of peaceful people in Gaza and the West Bank and Israel/Judea whatever you want to call the place. Nationalists over there are not peaceful.
- It's so telling that in all your replies, you keep going back to how "Hamas is evil" while casually glossing over Israel's role in this genocide and their constant crimes against humanity.
  Exploding buses from Hamas? No no no, inhuman. IDF forces dressing up as healthcare workers to go around unnoticed? Or Israel using civilians as human shields? bUt wHaT aBoUt hAmAs!?
  It's also telling that some 20 days ago, in another post, you wrote
  If what Luigi did was terrorism then I support terrorism! Viva La terror!!!
  So you do understand violence as a legitimate method of protest/resistance. But you don't understand it for Hamas or any other Muslim groups. Interesting...
  You Zionist trolls are all the same
  
  Luigi killed an oppressor. Teenagers and old ladies that Hamas targets in their atracks are not oppressors. I'm not unaware of Israel, but Hamas does use human shields. This is a fact. Hamas cannot ever do this. It is inhumane. It shreds them of innocence. It makes removing Hamas impossible without innocent loss, and I hear you on wanting thay. If oct 7 resulted in only oligarchs and military leaders and politicians being targeted I'd be having a different discussion. If any intifada by Hamas had desired peace instead of total war, we'd have a different discussion. Hamas is as evil as Israel is, I agree.
- A lot better than the Taliban, that's for sure. The Taliban are a whole thing on their own when it comes to women's rights.
  
  Fair enough. Don't disagree on the taliban.

151 comments