TeaThe Taliban have cited the public beating of Muslim men in Gujarat in defense of the security guards who beat up Afghan female students at Badakhshan University on Monday, as the girls were not wearing “proper uniforms”.
In a WhatsApp conversation with me, Abdul Kahr Balkhi, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, responded to a question about guards beating girl students by sending two video clips – one of them french police a pair of female protesters and tackle one of them Gujarat Police Flogging 10 Muslim men. “Would you like us to deal with civil disobedience like this?” Balki asked.
Men tied to a pole and publicly flogged by policemen as villagers in Undhela village, Gujarat expressed happiness He is accused of obstructing the Garba program last night.
I asked Balkhi if he justified the beating of Afghan female students because Muslim men were being flogged in India. He replied, “The reference was not only to India, but to the French conduct with the earlier strong opposition.
“All these actions are wrong, but journalists should not let their raw emotions and prejudice dominate their reporting,” Balkhi said.
There is, of course, some irony in the implementation of police actions in the world’s largest democracy in the Islamic emirate. Afghanistan’s current rule of law is synonymous with a puritanical version of Sharia and its government has not been formally recognized by the international community even 15 months after the Taliban came to power, although India has opened a mission in Kabul.
The Gujarat government still hasn’t condemned policemen in plain clothes for taking the law into their own hands; One petition filed by the victims The Gujarat High Court came a fortnight ago and the court asked the government to respond by December.
Perhaps, Balkhi is right. All these actions are wrong. Furthermore, some context must apply in the reporting of every story in both India and Afghanistan.
Read also: ‘Sin under Islam’ Taliban bans taking videos, photos of female students on university campus
Seeking context in harassment
Taliban Foreign Office spokesmen are pointing out that women were beaten up in Badakhshan because they “failed to wear uniforms and were denied entry, which led to protests (denial of entry and go home) as it was done on the instructions of the security guard.”
According to Balkhi, the women “began to cause civil disobedience, which provoked the guards to oust them, which in itself is wrong and will be dealt with according to the law.”
What Balkhi is saying is clear: the Taliban are in power. The Taliban have made it clear that all women in public must wear either a full black burqa that covers the entire female body or a niqab (face veil). If you thought you could get away with wearing a black head scarf and a black face mask that reveals the eyes and forehead and cheeks and chin — well, you can’t.
According to the Afghan-language English website ‘Hast-e-Subh’ Daily, “The Taliban have been increasing the pressure on girl students at Badakhshan University for some time now. Officials of the Ministry of Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of the Sub-Department for Badakhshan Province have made it mandatory for girl students to wear a burqa, and girls who do not wear a burqa are not allowed to enter the university.
“These double pressures from the Taliban have harassed the girl students of this province. He protested the strict restrictions imposed by the Taliban authority in front of the university entrance. The arguments of these students were severely suppressed by the Taliban and some of these girls were brutally beaten up.
Read also: Afghanistan is facing a serious crisis under the Taliban. It gets worse with its ‘women’s status’
difference in similarity
As for Balkhi, he is probably alluding to the double standards prevailing in the international community with respect to Afghanistan, France and India by referring to the strict handling of female protesters by the French police and the beatings of Muslim men in Gujarat. .
Balkhi wants to know why the French and Indians are not being condemned by the rest of the world for doing what the Taliban are doing.
But as he himself says, Balkhi needs to see the context. France not only has a Security Council veto-wielding power, but it also has some of the strongest defenses of fundamental rights and freedoms in its statute books, while India’s constitution guarantees equal rights for all.
Of course, the moral of the story here is that in the digital world, you can’t hide your flaws for very long — especially when they emerge at someone else’s expense. For example, the Gujarat lashing has made waves in the Islamic emirate of Afghanistan, even though the emirate is drawing wrong conclusions from attacks on Muslims.
The author is a consulting editor. She tweets @jomalhotra. Thoughts are personal.
(edited by Prashant)