How Will Fadhlina Help Afghanistan S Invisibles

---

Education Minister Fadhlina Sidek may have proudly boasted that she hosted a Taliban delegation earlier this month.
However, it is how she intends to “open the eyes” of the Taliban rulers and school them on restoring the rights of women to education that is most interesting.
For the Taliban, Afghan women do not exist. They are invisible. They have no rights, no voice, no presence, nor do they have any power, not even in their own homes.
The Taliban do not consider women their equal but treat them as inferior beings. At the third anniversary of gaining control of Afghanistan, no women reporters were allowed to the “celebrations”. Even human rights NGOs had to stop women from distributing aid in Afghanistan.
So, are we to believe that Fadhlina actually met and shook hands with the Taliban delegation led by its Education Ministry director-general Shahabuddin Saqib? If Fadhlina was recognised and accepted as a woman leader, what would the Afghan women think of this hypocrisy by their menfolk?
Stray dogs and cats have more freedom than Afghan women and they freely roam the streets from one rubbish dump to another, but women have to be chaperoned by a male family member if they were to leave their homes. Birds may sing in Afghanistan, but women are not allowed to do so, especially in public.
Women’s voices may not be heard, even by other women, and that is why it would be a miracle if the Taliban were to listen to a non-burqa-clad woman minister from Malaysia and consider her proposals about educating Afghan women.
The American invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and the rule by a government under Hamid Karzai brought some advances in women’s rights in the following two decades. However, the shambolic withdrawal of American troops from Kabul in August 2021 reversed all the good that its women had achieved.
Within a matter of days of taking over the country, the Taliban erased all women from public life. They were denied an education and had to give up work. Women were banned from entering the city’s parks. Women judges were forced to flee the country or go into hiding as they were hunted down and killed by the men whom they earlier imprisoned for the crimes they committed. The remaining women leaders in the country’s administration were expelled from office.
Fadhlina is either very optimistic or extremely naive. She is hopeful of convincing the Taliban that “educating women is not contrary to Islam but is in line with Islamic values”.
Is she aware the Islam that the Taliban subscribe to is not the Islam which moderate Malays believe in? Moreover, Islam may not be the underlying reason why women are repressed in Afghanistan.
The nation’s population is roughly 80 percent rural and 20 percent urban. In the outlying villages, tribal culture supersedes religious teachings. How will Fadhlina negotiate their tribal customs and persuade them that women deserve an education and have rights?
What M’sia has to offer
If only Fadhlina would stop blowing her own trumpet. She said she wants “the world to learn from Malaysia where we have much experience in championing education”. Again, Fadhlina is confused.
Our experience lies in the 3Rs - race, religion and rasuah (bribery) - and the world has already learnt that we are the greatest kleptocracy in the world. We do not champion education but we do champion Malay supremacy.
In some parts of the country, we have bog standard education. Perhaps, Taliban leaders, like many of ours, send their children overseas to receive a well-rounded education.
There are many unanswered questions regarding this visit by the Taliban.
Fadhlina may have played host to the Taliban but was it because her boss was not around? Did he extend the invitation to the Taliban to visit Malaysia? Or had the Taliban expressed a desire to visit Malaysia to meet Education Ministry officials? Did they visit other ministries as well?
The education minister may have wanted to “seize every opportunity to educate the Afghans”, but where are her priorities? Shouldn’t she attend to the needs of our own students?
If Fadhlina needs help in this direction, she could pay a visit to the rural areas of East Malaysia and listen to the students and teachers there.
But she need not go to Borneo. She could listen to the non-Malay and Orang Asli students on the peninsula who are disappointed about being ignored and denied opportunities because of racial quotas.
Some of us are not convinced that Malaysia is going to “school” the Taliban about education.
In the conservative states of Peninsular Malaysia, the dress code, and women being treated as second-class citizens, have already made their mark. Films, theatre, music, and sports are heavily controlled by the state.
No politician who wants to be re-elected dares to ban child marriages, and in future, public floggings will be the new “attraction”.
In time, might we adopt whipping and public stoning of women who commit adultery?
To justify the Taliban visit was Fadhlina’s story about Malaysians “teaching the Taliban to educate their women”.
Perhaps, the real reason was for the Taliban to teach us about repression.
Why is this Madani administration actively supporting allegedly terrorist organisations in the Middle East and repressive regimes which have no respect for women? - Mkini
MARIAM MOKHTAR is a defender of the truth, the admiral-general of the Green Bean Army, and the president of the Perak Liberation Organisation (PLO). Blog, X.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.

---