No Country For Women: Cloaked Mannequin Heads To Education Ban, A Haunting Sight Of Kabul

Ever since its second-time Afghanistan takeover in 2021, the Taliban has maintained itself in the news headlines. This time they made it to the news headlines when mannequins in women's clothing stores in Kabul were seen with their heads cloaked in cloth sacks, faces veiled and masked or wrapped in black plastic bags. As per reports, the Taliban initially wanted the mannequins to be beheaded.

Beheaded Mannequins In Kabul

Several pictures and videos of mannequins with covered faces from Afghanistan emerged and circulated on social media. As per reports, the Taliban have also been doing rounds in the streets and malls to keep a look at the shops to ensure that the rules are being followed.

Mannequin heads are being removed in Herat, Afghanistan. Most of them are female.

Almost every day brings further evidence that the Taliban are implementing a massive rollback of women’s rights. We stand with Afghan women. pic.twitter.com/g004aeIDbK

— Human Rights Watch (@hrw) January 10, 2022

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The order came from the Taliban in line with their rule based on a strict interpretation of Islamic law that outlaws statues and representations of the human form because they could be worshipped as gods. This was implemented by the Taliban in an effort to keep women out of the public eye. To which, a shop owner, Aziz, told the media, “Everyone knows mannequins aren’t idols, and no one’s going to worship them. In all Muslim countries, mannequins are used to display clothes.”

“If they just cover the head or hide the entire mannequin, the angel of Allah will not enter their shop or house and bless them.”
Taliban orders shop owners to remove heads of mannequins.

🙄🙄🙄#Afghanistan#Taliban#AfghanistanCrisispic.twitter.com/OL8FGxPfXI

— Insomaniac (@fayaz_amini) January 6, 2022

Taliban’s Afghanistan Takeover In 2021

On August 15, 2021, as India celebrated its 74th Independence Day, the extremist Islamist military organisation, the Taliban, took over Afghanistan once again. With the United States withdrawing its forces from the country in early 2021, the Taliban swept into Afghanistan. The country’s government collapsed and its president Ashraf Ghani fled the country on August 15, 2021.

The takeover created a situation of panic and chaos across the country, media, and especially among women who lived in Afghanistan. And, once again, women are the primary victims and one of the most adversely affected under the Taliban rule in the country.

Initially, the Taliban had promised that this time it would come with a new government, a more progressive one and with lesser extremism. They went so far as to promise freedom for women and declared that they will not be barred from their rights under the Sharia law. However, as feared, the Taliban has systematically excluded women from most of their rights.

Ban of Afghanistan Women Under Taliban

This time, the violation of women’s rights in the country began with the stoppage of learning and performing music followed by restrictions in the media industry where women anchors were ordered to wear mask on air. Later, it moved on to women in politics when they stated that women would hold no cabinet position in the de facto administration. The Taliban also abolished the Ministry of Women’s Affairs due to which women are denied their right to political participation. Then, they were banned from entering amusement parks and gyms as well.

Education Ban On Afghanistan Women

In the education sector, first, the Taliban introduced dress codes for women in colleges and universities and reportedly prohibited universities from teaching women certain subjects, including engineering, economics, agriculture, journalism, and veterinary medicine, among others. In the latest reports, the Taliban ministry has reportedly said that women would not be allowed access to the country’s universities until further notice since December 2022.

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In the same month, the Taliban also restricted women from working in nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) due to which a lot of organisations suspended operations. However, reports suggest that they have restored their services after they received assurances from the Taliban authorities that women could work in the health sector.