Human catastrophe playing out in Afghanistan

IT IS without a doubt that Middle Eastern countries are home to some of the world’s most beautiful women – silky dark hair, feather-brushed cheekbones and eyes the colour of espresso. Afghanistan is no different. But, sadly, due to religious attire regulations, the world never gets to see this radiance and pulchritude.

The implementation of Sharia law under Taliban rule in Afghanistan will see women suffer Kafkaesque degradation and humiliation. They have already separated the different sexes at universities, with males leaving earlier, not to allow any form of mixing. A women’s rights demonstration was thwarted with ease. And not one woman holds a senior post in the newly-formed interim government!

The Taliban seeks international legitimacy but behind the verbal placebos and plastic smiles lurks the raw animal magnetism of terror.

They appear less professional and more predatory, their refinement only a cloak to conceal deformities, their civilised demeanour a mask – their minds a clockwork of meticulously calculated evil. The poppy fields of Afghanistan are the lungs of the Taliban as they generate billions of dollars through drug trafficking. There is a stunning expectation of visceral terror on anyone that disobeys their rule, especially women.

They have made it known in no uncertain terms that they will govern according to Sharia law. They are a new force in the corridors of international politics and have no experience in running a country, so there are bound to be internal and external conflicts. A Herculean human catastrophe is playing out in Afghanistan. One in three people do not know where their next meal will come from and millions of children face death by starvation as the country faces an unprecedented economic and social collapse. Since the October 2001 American invasion, it has been a long, protracted and costly 20-year war, with thousands of US soldiers losing their lives and trillions of dollars spent in keeping the country together and out of the clutches of the Taliban.

For now, the US seem to have kept their promise of seeking a safe passage for all Afghans who worked for them. For them hopefully it will be a new beginning full of promise. But for those left behind, the world can only pray.

KEVIN GOVENDER I Shallcross