6. The Taliban simply ignored condemnation for its treatment of women
Numerous international entities and the United Nations condemned the Taliban’s treatment of women, though their closest allies, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, remained silent. The Taliban exhibited contempt for the protests, justifying their acts as preserving the chastity of women under Sharia law. Afghanistan at the time lacked a functioning government, and services to the poor were non-existent. Several Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) offered, and then withdrew aid in response to the Taliban’s treatment of women and children. The Taliban ignored their protests and continued their repression of women and education, as well as direct aid to families. Punishment of women in the streets continued, despite it being a violation of official Taliban policy. Most were carried out by individuals acting as private militias. The Taliban ignored them too.
The repression of women under the Taliban did not stop with native Afghani women. Volunteers in the country working with various NGOs and other international aid groups found themselves the targets of Taliban men when not in compliance with Mullah’s directives. Punishments for violations committed by women were often inflicted on men as well. For example, a male tailor caught measuring a woman’s body for clothes was subject to punishment such as flogging. Women caught outside their home without a burqa could be escorted there by the religious police, who would then punish the corresponding male head of the household, often by a beating with truncheons. In 1998, a woman caught by the religious police walking with a man, not her husband or blood relative was convicted of adultery. She received 100 lashes in public in Kabul’s Ghazi Stadium.