Taleban return to attacking girls’ schools in Afghanistan
Since the beginning of the new school year on March 23 there have been 36 attacks. Empty buildings have been set on fire or had grenades thrown into them. Teachers have been kidnapped, and later released. In one grisly case a caretaker was mutilated by having his ears and nose cut off, a common punishment for those accused of collaborating with the Afghan Government.
The Taliban’s treatment of women stems more from a cultural peculiarity than from Islamic teachings. Most of the Taliban are ethnic Pashtuns, and their Pashtunwali- or customary law- differs in large respects from Islamic legal rulings that are practiced elsewhere in the Islamic world.
Divorce, which is a right granted to women by Islam, is forbidden, and women are prevented from owning either land or estate. According to a popular Pashtun proverb: a woman is best either in the household or the grave.
In all fairness, Pashtunwali evolved to counter a violent and often fickle environment. Women are thus signal representations of the honor of an individual male, family and clan; to be defended at all costs. Because of this, Pashtun women are expected to conform to a strict set of behavioral norms. If the norm is broken, using force to reinforce a woman’s place in society is not considered an aberrant action.
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