Any guess as to when and where this photo was taken?


Afghan women c.1972

It is not hard to note that the clothing styles suggest the 1960s and 1970s. In fact this was taken in 1972. The difficult part is the country. This was actually taken in Kabul, Afghanistan and provides a stunning reminder of how relatively liberal the country was in the past when women could walk freely down a street dressed like that.

Think of women in Afghanistan now, and you’ll probably recall pictures in the media of women in full-body burqas, perhaps the famous National Geographic photograph of ‘the Afghan girl’, or prominent figures murdered for visibly defending women’s rights. But it hasn’t always been this way.

‘As a girl, I remember my mother wearing miniskirts and taking us to the cinema. My aunt went to university in Kabul.’

Horia

Until the conflict of the 1970s, the 20th Century had seen relatively steady progression for women’s rights in the country. Afghan women were first eligible to vote in 1919 – only a year after women in the UK were given voting rights, and a year before the women in the United States were allowed to vote. In the 1950s purdah (gendered separation) was abolished; in the 1960s a new constitution brought equality to many areas of life, including political participation.

Thanks to the Taliban and reactionary politicians and clergy, women suffered drastic setbacks in rights and were required to be covered up and not appear in public unaccompanied by a male guardian. With the overthrow of the Taliban, it appears that some of the most onerous restrictions have been lifted but women are still struggling to get the right to do many of the things that women in other parts of the world take for granted. And the influence of the Taliban remains strong especially in the rural areas.

One simple rule of thumb that I use for how well-structured a society is the extent to which women have full equality, not just in terms of jobs, income, and wealth, and but also in terms of social factors like educational opportunities and roles played in the family and institutions.

Yesterday was International Women’s Day (for the fascinating history of this day and its roots in socialism, see here) and there were rallies and marches and celebrations all over the world and here are some great photos of those events celebrating but also calling for full equality. While the status of women has generally improved since the first women’s day observance in 1909, the history of Afghanistan shows that we can never be assured that any gains once won cannot be taken away.

Comments

  1. says

    Thanks to the Taliban and reactionary politicians and clergy

    … which was the militant force the US recruited as a proxy army, to give the Soviets a black eye, for being so stupid as to try to take over Afghanistan. Because everyone remembers what happens to empires that go to Afghanistan, right? But it’s all just crazy religious bigots; it’s nothing to do with politics.

    Women dressed like that in Mossadegh’s Iran, and even under the US puppet Shah; the current regime, of course, is all just crazy religious bigots; it’s nothing to do with politics.

  2. Mano Singham says

    Owlmirror,

    Thanks for those photos. The level of regression in those countries is truly depressing.

  3. Sam N says

    Ronald Reagan called the Taliban moral equivalents to our founding fathers. Sounds about right, I guess, after all, our founding fathers did allow for slavery, did not view women as the equals of men. Maybe if left alone for 200 years they’d gradually become more progressive again? Without me having to pay large portions of my taxes to bomb the shit out of them?

  4. John Morales says

    I guessed Iran.

    I remember when watching Rambo III when it came out and thinking it glorified the Mujahideen.

    (Factoid — source: Wikipedia — “The original VHS release had in the end credits: “Dedicated to the brave Mujaheddin fighters”, although this was later changed to “Dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan.””)

  5. John Morales says

    Sam,

    Ronald Reagan called the Taliban moral equivalents to our founding fathers. Sounds about right, I guess, after all, our founding fathers did allow for slavery, did not view women as the equals of men. Maybe if left alone for 200 years they’d gradually become more progressive again?

    Alas, geopolitics is now global and the USA is an empire in everything but name (in particular, hegemonic sphere of influence). In fact, military spending is to be increased… and what good a military machine that sits there unused?

    Without me having to pay large portions of my taxes to bomb the shit out of them?

    I do realise you are being sardonic.

  6. Sam N says

    Joke’s on me anyway. Reagan never said that quote, it’s incorrect. Ah, well. He still short-sightedly funded the mujahideen fuckers without any thoughts as to consequences. At least it was just my parents’ money, and not mine. Mine’s mostly gone to W fucking up Iraq and Obama drone-striking the fuck out of everything else. Maybe I should quit my job now so my taxes can’t go to whatever dumbass shit Trump’s going to pull.

  7. says

    Of course that reflects the situation in early 70s Kabul, not in rural areas which were pretty much the same then as they are today (sans updated military technology).

    So you got a non-urban population largely excluded from the benefits of progress enjoyed by city dwellers launching an insurgency to enforce their own regressive modes on the entire country via an authoritarian, misogynistic, militaristic regime.
    I wonder if there’s a lesson there for other countries.

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