Afghan women, shared responsibility

A Taliban walks past a beauty salon with spray-painted images of women in Kabul on August 18.WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP

The need for international recognition has led the Taliban leaders to launch a reassuring public diplomacy, with massage messages about respecting women, and urban militias with a

aesthetic

aimed at imposing a tempered version of the group.

A

for the 21st century: Taliban 2.0.

Unfortunately, the facts return us to the brutal behavior of the past, from the torture and murder of opponents, to the well-known mistreatment of women, subjected to slavery, in the sexual limit with the forced marriages practiced by the combatants.

Clear signs of a return to barbarism have mobilized the international community with initiatives such as the manifesto "Open the door to Afghanistan and Afghan women."

However, any external attempt to effectively pressure Kabul on issues related to rights and freedoms requires the participation of the umma itself, the community of Muslim believers, since that exercised by non-believers can only have an economic impact.

More information

• The struggle of women in Afghanistan, in pictures

The Islamic world, in the absence of a centralizing institution such as the Church in Catholicism, has instead centers of authority capable of exerting a great influence on the Muslim community. There he is, the great doctrinaire Al Qaradawi, world president of the Ulemas and propagandist from Al Jazeera: cordial with the Taliban. Also the University of Al-Azahar in Cairo, the area of ​​a wide debate, and the Deoband seminary in India, ultra-conservative and predominant in South Asia. They count countries like Qatar, mediator in the peace talks; Saudi Arabia, cautious advisers to the Taliban; and in the opposite direction, the old Shiite enemies of Iran, today reconciled. Plus, of course, neighboring Pakistan, the cradle and support of the Taliban movement and perhaps a sorcerer's apprentice. Saving the differences that separate them,the women of these countries can lead a life that among the Taliban would be pure impiety. For this reason, in this complex world, it is unthinkable that its intellectuals and theologians remain on the sidelines of what the return of the Taliban entails. The declarations of a Taliban leader, announcing that the issues that concern women will be submitted to the decision of a council of Islamic jurists, may be the occasion to overcome the current situation and to challenge the radical interpretation carried out by the group.Announcing that matters that concern women will be submitted to the decision of a council of Islamic jurists may be the occasion to overcome the current situation and to challenge the radical interpretation carried out by the group.Announcing that matters that concern women will be submitted to the decision of a council of Islamic jurists may be the occasion to overcome the current situation and to challenge the radical interpretation carried out by the group.

Leaving everything at the mercy of what the

Afghan

resolves

without the moderating action of other Islamic theologians leads to a dead end. And it will also affect the governments that hope to benefit from the Taliban triumph: China, Russia, Pakistan. Will they bear the cost of this irrationality? The Taliban regime needs to achieve international legitimacy and economic aid. It is therefore essential to condition any support on the respect of the rights of the Afghan population in general, and of women in particular. Their protection is a global responsibility shared by Asian, Muslim, and Western countries.