Just wondering if the Taleban are supported by many women or if it is strictly a male driven concept. I see potential comparisons to all of the fundamentalist Christian men who tout themselves as such moral authorities on abortion and the rights of women to control the destiny of their bodies.
I think there’s a fundamental problem in finding out. These women can’t exactly be asked their opinion, can they? And they don’t come from a long tradition of voicing opinions anyway.
Well, Zenster, I sure you can find a few women in “support” of their own degradation because there are crazy people everywhere, but since under the Taliban women are pretty much not allowed opinions almost by definition it is not “supported” by women because the women under it are not permitted to “support” anything in the sense I think you mean.
What about all the women here who are protesting for peace - do they know what they are actually supporting?
They probably “support” them because they don’t know the difference.
If you were told from birth that as a female you’re a piece of chattel that has no rights, you’ll be brainwashed into thinking that that is the truth.
From today’s Chicago Tribune. Interviews with some women who have voted with their feet.
http://chicagotribune.com/news/printedition/chi-0110170381oct17.story?coll=chi-printnews-hed
To address the OP, I would bet that if you allowed Afghan women to speak their minds freely, you’d get a 0.01% Gallup Poll approval rating for the Taliban. The Taliban hasn’t been in power for long enough for women to forget what it’s like to be able to walk down the street with your face uncovered. It’d take several generations to brainwash all the women in a country to believe that they were worthless.
It’s natural selection in action–the ones with enough self-respect and gumption to walk, are doing so.
All the answers you could want on the position of women under the Taliban.
I’ll actually agree with both DDG ( you don’t mind being reduced to initials, I hope 
) and AWB. The Taliban take on Islam, while heavily influenced by the extreme teachings of the Wahhabi sect, are also influenced by, and reflective of, the treatment and status ( or lack thereof ) of women in tribal Pashtun society. I’m not saying all Pashtuns are like that, but the uneducated, semi-feudal country-folk seem to be. Probably many of these women don’t know much better, though even they are probably beginning to chafe a bit at the Taliban now that it is becoming more and more extreme ( then again, many of them won’t see, or even here about the worst, because it is really in the towns and refugee camps where the Taliban are most visible, and communication sucks ).
On the other hand, the somewhat more sophisticated urban populations ( whatever is left of them ) are different. Not only do they know better and remember how it used to be, but they are experiencing the worst of the social crackdowns. DDG’s estimate probably holds pretty well with those women.
- Tamerlane
I saw an interview with the female British journalist who had snuck into Afghanistan, but who was captured (then released) by the Taliban.
She mentioned a conversation she’d had with an Afghan woman. The woman asked her if she had any children. “One,” she replied.
The Afghan woman said something like “Typical of British and Americans. I can bear 15 sons to fight the Americans. We will be here long after you run out of children.” (Paraphrasing.)
So there’s at least one Afghan woman willing to do her part for the Taliban cause.
I can’t speak on the Taliban with any authority, but… I can and will warn Americans, especially those on the left:
NEVER to assume that the people YOU think are oppressed are eager to shed their “chains” and form an alliance with you.
NEVER assume that the enemy of your enemy must be your friend.
And NEVER assume that everyone around the world must want the same things out of life that you do.
Think about this- in any “patriarchal” religious society, who is it that teaches the kids the faith? Who is it that makes sure the kids attend religious services? Who is it that makes sure everyone follows all the rules, and performs all the proper rituals? The WOMEN, of course!
That’s true among Moslems, among Catholics, among fundamentalist Christians, and among ultra-Orthodox Jews.
A non-religious, educated, promiscuous (sorry to use a perjorative-sounding word, but you know what I mean) American woman may find this hard to believe, but many Islamic women EMBRACE institutions and rules that strike Americans as oppressive. Sure, there are some who dream of fleeing from Afghanistan and finding a place where they can be free… but I suspect there are far more who consider America the Great Satan, and who’d proudly send their sons on a jihad against the West.