"Feminists" Once Again Abandon Afghan Women

     At the Democrat National Convention last week, so-called “feminists” were out in full force. Their biggest cause, of course, is reproductive rights, better known as abortion on demand. If Feminists do not have access to abortion whenever they want one, they are oppressed. If someone from another planet suddenly dropped in from outer space last week and saw the feminists marching for abortion on demand, they might think that that is the definition of women being oppressed. They could not be more wrong. America is not a perfect place, but the one thing American women don’t have to be worried about is oppression.

     Last week, in that “free” nation we like to call Afghanistan, women were dealt another blow to what little freedom they have. When the Taliban took control of the country in 2021, you know, after the disastrous withdrawal of American troops by Joe Biden and, yes, Kamala Harris, they vowed that they would respect women’s rights. But if you believed that, then you probably believed that Joe Biden was sharp as a tack until Nancy Pelosi shived him. Of course, they did not respect women’s rights. Women were blocked from higher education, blocked from holding a job, walking in a public park, or even going to a beauty salon or a gym. But now, it gets worse. Here are the new “vice and virtue” laws now being implemented by the Taliban. Afghan women are now prohibited from showing any skin in public; they must be veiled literally from head to toe. Women’s voices are now outlawed in public. They must not be heard speaking, singing, or reading aloud, even if it is heard coming from inside their own home. They are prohibited from looking at men they are not related to, and taxi drivers will be punished if they drive a woman without a male family member escorting her.

     But the subjugation and abuse of Afghan women is being met with a lot of silence from around the world, especially American feminists who have been busy with the Democrat National Convention abortion van. Roza Otunbayeva, the United Nations special representative for Afghanistan, said of the new laws, “It is a distressing vision for Afghanistan’s future, where moral inspectors have discretionary powers to threaten and detain anyone based on broad and sometimes vague lists of infractions. It extends the already intolerable restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls, with even the sound of a female voice outside the home apparently deemed a moral violation.”

     While some nations have diplomatic ties with the Taliban government, they are not formally recognized by any nation in the world. Mir Abdul Wahid Sadat, president of the Afghan Lawyer’s Association, brings up a few interesting claims, such as, that the fundamental principles of Islam do not promote virtue “through force, coercion, or tyranny.” Also, the new laws counter Afghanistan’s domestic and international obligations, and the laws violate all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But since when has the Taliban given a rat’s rear end what the rest of the world thinks?

     The problem is, is that the Taliban does not have to listen to what the rest of the world thinks because Afghan women are not hearing from the rest of the world. The only thing being heard from international and American feminist organizations is crickets. Silence. Shukria Barackzai, a former Afghan Parliamentarian and Afghanistan Ambassador to Norway is calling out the international silence on the Taliban’s abuse of women and girls. She said, “It is concerning that international organizations, particularly the United Nations and the European Union, instead of standing against these inhumane practices, are trying to normalize relations with the Taliban. They are, in a way, whitewashing this group, disregarding the fact that the Taliban are committing widespread human rights violations.” What will it take for international human and women’s rights groups to finally speak up about the abuse of Afghan women and girls? You might think something like this: earlier this year, the Taliban government announced it would resume flogging and stoning to death women for adultery. But so far, that hasn’t happened.

     Classical feminists would have been front and center on this issue. The feminist movement in its heyday fought for things like equal pay for equal work and women working in professions that had traditionally been reserved for men. They fought for the freedom to be treated equally in society, not having to endure things like being called “honey” and “sweetie,” and not having to put up with unwanted sexual advances. They fought for Title IX, which ensured that women participating in collegiate sports were offered the same scholarship opportunities as men.  Today’s feminists, at least in the United States, don’t speak up for American women, in fact, they seem to be okay with the erasure of women. They are actively involved with the transgender movement and making sure biological men compete against real women in sports. Those early feminists would be demanding that the U.S. government do something about the plight of Afghan women. They would be protesting, demonstrating, and appearing before Congress. But this bunch, they think the only thing that defines feminism is abortion. What about the circumstances of women around the world? Is it because most of them identify as Democrats and therefore think that they must support every hair-brained Democrat scheme, even if it means virtual self-erasure? Or is the reality that the only women they care about outside the U.S. are Palestinian women, and no one else counts?

     What will happen to Afghan women and girls in the future is unknown. But what is known is that we keep asking the same question. Where are the “feminists,” and why, once again, have they abandoned women?