Spare us the horror!

It’s quite outrageous when people defend Talibans with lame justifications. But it is even more frustrating when people present ridiculous theories of the ‘good’ and the ‘bad’ Talibans. People having confused perception about these fanatics consider the Pakistani Talibans terrorists but at the same time idealize the Afghani Talibans as the champions of Islamic Shariah. No surprise. Worshipping anything that comes with the tag of religion (even if it has no credible link with religion) is a common phenomenon in Pakistan. Majority of the people consider the state system introduced by the former Taliban government in Afghanistan as an exemplary Islamic state. Although contrary to this misconception, that system was nothing more than the product of typical Taliban mentality rich in barbarism, extremism, sheer male dominance and religious exploitation.

Quite frankly speaking the popular view that Afghanistan had zero crime rate in the Taliban reign is mere fiction to me. Lets suppose even if this was the case then how can we casually ignore the horrifying atrocities inflicted upon women by the Talibans themselves? In this very so called zero crime rate era the radical Talibans like Gulbaddin, Rabbani, Masood, Sayyaf, Khalili, Akbari, Mazari and their co criminal Dostum framed the most inhumane law code to terrorize humanity. It was more of a crusade against women rather than any type of Shariah. They imposed a complete ban on female education and the girl’s schools were turned to religious seminaries. Many female teachers and students who did not abide by this restriction were severely punished, beaten and some were even sprayed by acid. Women were not allowed to work and any woman without burqa or out of home without a mahram was publically flogged. Family planning was outlawed. The use of cosmetics and perfume was strictly prohibited and women with painted nails have had their fingers cut off. Any woman appearing on the balconies of their apartment or houses had to face dire consequences.

In these suffocating conditions the suicide rate among women peaked in the Taliban times. Women were forbidden from working except some female doctors were given permission to work in some exclusive female hospitals. Women were not allowed to be treated by a male doctor even in dying circumstances due to which the death toll of women inflated since the number of female doctors in Afghanistan was negligible. All female doctors were ordered to wear burqa in the hospital even in the operation theatre which resulted in frequent operation failures due to poor vision. In short, women were deprived of a humane existence and were simply reduced to the level of household slaves and as a means of procreation.

Apart from the general cruelty, the Talibans could not help showing their lunatic side as well.  Since for them even the word “women” is sexually alluring that’s why they modified all the places names including the word “women” e.g., “Women’s Garden” was renamed as “Spring Garden”. Even female public baths were banned. All the people with non Islamic names were ordered to change their name to Islamic ones. Other than that all men were forced to grow a beard. Even technology appeared haraam to them that’s why the use of internet was banned. Let me make it very clear here that all these rules and punishments were equally binding upon foreigners as well.

Minorities were forced to wear a badge or stitch a yellow patch on their dress so that they could be differentiated from the Muslim population. So for those claiming that Talibans brought ‘justice’ maybe religious discrimination (let alone gender discrimination) is justified.

Even with its obvious brutality, most of our religious scholars defended the Taliban government. Dr Israr Ahmed not only justified the Taliban violence on numerous occasions but also attributed it as a highly ‘peaceful’ system. Not only that but many of our so called ‘intellectuals’ advocate that Taliban state concept. Javed Chaudhry, easily the most celebrated journalist of Urdu press is a great admirer of the  Taliban government. In one of his famous articles he wrote that in the Afghanistan of Taliban there was hundred percent justice, tolerance, self sacrifice, hospitality and modesty. No wonder people have confused views when it comes to extremism. What to talk of the general public when even  for our thinking idols the violation of human rights means absolutely nothing.

Under the guise of religious observance Talibans only exercised their personal sick ideology. ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ is a wrong terminology; we should rather recall it as the ‘Taliban Emirate of Afghanistan’. It is quite common to hear people idealizing the Taliban government in leisure drawing room discussions. Not only that but even many are of the view that the salvation of Pakistan also lies in that same crooked system. It is utterly disgusting to see even many women wanting the same sadistic state code in Pakistan. All such people should rather go and form such a state on a vacant island and open the membership for extremists and those women who want to spend their lives like goats and sheep. The only plea is to kindly don’t demand the same system in Pakistan and spare us the binding extremism. Not all of us are much fond of a fanatic suicide.