With the departure of NATO troops from Afghanistan, every day there are various discussions in the media about the situation there, about people’s opinions, and recently an entire campaign to promote violence by the taliban on a Facebook group.
So I am writing this article to point out some aspects that need to be considered when talking about the situation there.
The main aspects that made me write this article are related to the empathy I have as a person towards the people there who suffer, and especially towards women and children. Therefore, I will start with the analysis of the actions that led to the existence of the conflict in the first place.
I will not analyze the political aspects, but I will speak simply from a human perspective.
What are the taliban occupations?
There are a lot of Afghans on all social networks telling stories of innocent people being killed. But at the same time there are a lot of taliban commenting that those people were probably guilty. In such sittuation, when people prove to be in lack of cognitive competencies, of an analysis capacity and observation, it is clear that we are dealing with people that do not act with their minds, but simply on the basis of instincts.
Where does this problem come from? The problem comes from the fact that the Taliban are the people who grow 97% of the total opium produced in Afghanistan. The United States has spent more than $ 8 billion over the past 15 years trying to prevent the development of a narco-state. However, their activity continues to grow.
Where there is something in abundance, there will always be consumption. Therefore, we cannot speak of lucid people in the case of the taliban people.
What is the reason for the conflict?
The reason for the conflict is the taliban’s intention to impose on all Afghans a lifestyle they want. The problem is that this lifestyle represents only the taliban men, not the rest of the people. Women have no rights and so do the children. Basically, the lifestyle they impose is made only for men. They vote, they pray, they dance, they sing, they laugh, they undress as much as they want, they decide who, how and what to do in their family; they practically play life with everyone around them.
If the Afghan army had 300,000 soldiers, how did the 80,000 taliban soldiers got to conquer everything so quickly?
Experts say that the Afghan army was not really that large. The official number is this high because many soldiers were reported to be in the army just to receive aid from NATO.
Even so, the Afghan army would have been bigger than the taliban fighters, so what happened?
Just because the United States and its allies have been in Afghanistan for 20 years does not mean that they have managed to change the way of thinking of all the people there. They had hundreds of years of tradition in which women were undermined. Therefore, the arrival of NATO has done nothing but represent for some an opportunity of employment and humanitarian aid.
However, this does not mean, that NATO has become involved in Afghan family life. So their lifestyle has remained somewhat the same. Therefore, as soon as the US left, the Afghans “returned” to their lives they have put on hold 20 years ago.
Why don’t women fight back?
The women there are largely uneducated. The advent of NATO has brought education programs, but that has only changed some of the new generations. While the already formed generations do not change so easily through an education program. They need an example.
Without education they do not know their biological power and the ability to change something by not giving birth to children of men who do not respect them. Those kids will be finally educated them in the same way and will disrespect them together.
Later, many of the women there obey out of fear that their families will be killed.
Here is a point I would like to dwell on.
Women have always tried to be protective of their families, but unfortunately, they have forgotten that their fathers and their brothers, the ones they are defending, have arranged a forced marriage. They forgot that they were some of those who did the same bad thing to their mothers. Therefore, the protective attitude will do nothing but perpetuate the tradition of treating women the way the talibans do.
Do men have any advantage if the taliban come to power?
If their coming to power means rape, drugs, lack of justice, domestic violence, then yes, they have an advantage. Because unlike civilized societies where men conquer women, unlike animals that do proceed in the same way, the talibans force women to do what they want. Therefore, they do not have to develop mentally to think, to improvise or to analyze, they just adapt the world to their needs.
Conclusions:
If we look closely at the above, we truly understand the reasons why NATO left Afghanistan: because there were too few Afghans who wanted a different life. In all societies that have gone from totalitarianism and lifestyles like the one the talibans want, there was a majority of society that wanted that change. Unfortunately for the hundreds of thousands of women who do not take action, and men who continue the tradition without caring about their mothers, daughters and sisters, it is not worth the sacrifice.
Let’s not forget that the change in the Arab countries started with the self-burning of Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia. As long as there is not a large mass of people in Afghanistan who take a clear stance on the Taliban regime, democracies will not be installed, rights will not be defended, and mothers will not be respected.
Sources:
Britanica. (2021). Arab Spring. Britanica, https://www.britannica.com/event/Arab-Spring.
General Stolenberg Jens. (2021). Press briefing on Afghanistan. NATO, https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/opinions_186040.htm.
Landay Jonathan. (2021). Profits and poppy: Afghanistan’s illegal drug trade a boon for Taliban. Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/profits-poppy-afghanistans-illegal-drug-trade-boon-taliban-2021-08-16/.