The Taliban is making headline news again as the new US government orders another 21,000 American troops into Afghanistan in a futile attempt to control Afghanistan, who will never submit nor conform to foreign demands. All armies leave Afghanistan with a bloody nose.The West has used for very effective propaganda purposes the Taliban’s prejudice against girls attending school as well as ordering women to wear the burka in public. The Koran simply advised women to dress modestly, such as the hijab (headscarf).
It is vital that we challenge the religious dogma of the Taliban but we also need to examine the sickness of the Barbie Doll culture that we have created. The Taliban cover their women up and we strip our women down. Instead of forcing girls to stay at home, the Taliban should encourage girls to attend school to learn and study the precious elements of Islamic culture and educate their children about the dangers of sexual exploitation of the young by the fashion and violent games software.
The Taliban (the word Taliban means Students) feel disgust with the Western treatment of girls and women. They believe that the West grooms girls for the sex trade from a young age in schools and for the demands of consumer society. They see the way Western girls and women dress, act and behave, even at a young age, in a sexually provocative manner. They Taliban believe they are protecting their daughters and sisters from becoming sex objects. The Taliban know that pornography is the biggest business on Western websites, primarily design for male pleasure.
Alcohol (banned in Islamic culture), binge drinking and drugs help fuel the sexual violence on our streets, especially at weekends. Most girls and women in the West report men and boys have subjected them to sexual abuse, assault or violence. Nowhere is safe for women, young or old.
There is a self-righteous attitude in the West towards Islam. The Taliban’s reaction is certainly a distortion of the Koran and a gross denial of girls and women’s love for learning. We also dump the dark, unresolved, misogynist shadows of the West on our women and girls and the Talilban does much the same on women and girls in its culture. Who are we to preach to the Taliban?
The US President needs to look into his family tradition in Africa with its Islamic roots so that he understands the views of others and equally questions the conversion of women and girls into sex objects in the West.