31. Just imagine a religion-less world! 

First Russians came, then Americans and now Taliban. It was war, then terror and starvation. In Afghanistan, people have been suffering for decades. The situation in the country deteriorated drastically in August 2021 as the Taliban took power. 

Taliban took over the country from the democratically-elected Government, and since then women and girls have been systemically excluded from equal participation in society. Islamist rule has made the life of second sex a hell. Women and girls have no rights to self-determination.

In this world there is no one to hear their voice or support them. 

Women have been banned from most forms of paid employment and girls prevented from attending secondary school or university. 

Women are also prevented from walking in public parks, gyms and other communal spaces, and travelling without a male chaperone.

Although all beauty salons were officially closed in August 2023, leading to the shutdown of 12,000 businesses and leaving over 50,000 women beauticians unemployed, many secret salons have continued to operate within local communities.

Now Taliban has issued fresh warning to Afghan women asking them to shut secret beauty salons in a month or face arrest. This time they intend to root out and eliminate these underground businesses, issuing orders to community leaders and elders across the country that they must identify clandestine beauty salons and report those running them to the “vice and virtue” police.

Taliban officials have always disagreed saying, “All fundamental rights afforded to Afghan women have been safeguarded in strict accordance with Islamic Sharia law, as well as the cultural and traditional frameworks of Afghan society.” 

But what is Islamic Sharia law? We all know the answer.

Whichever religion we talk about, in my view religion is basically an outdated concept. It is just a political tool to crush the dignity and value of life around the world. 

It is an impediment to human progress and it doesn’t allow us to live a life we should live.

All religions talk about next life and ask us to follow strict rules in this life thereby snatching our freedom. Yes, be clear, how to live and how to conduct in society shouldn’t come under the religious curriculum. It should be dictated by the society itself.

Mistakenly it is understood that religion gives solace to suffering people – no, it derails and lessens their strength to fight back. It doesn’t provide even a temporary escape.

I agree with Karl Marx, and helplessly watch the majority of people on the earth intoxicated with this opium.

Just imagine a religion-less world! 

At least let us aspire to have less conflict and more individual freedom.

(Top Photo courtesy https://rukhshana.com, with thanks.)