Like a bullet from Salem in 1692 to 9/11 to August 15, 2021, it’s religious extremism writ large. The people are not fleeing from the Taliban. They are fleeing from Sharia Religious law.
It’s caused thousands of people running around desperately, fighting amongst themselves to get on a plane to flee Taliban rule. Because that’s what people do when they are struggling to stay alive. The Talibani’s themselves are Afghans just like these people. But the Talibani’s did not make the rules they want to establish in the country. These are laws laid down by Allah, by Islam. Islam is the world’s second-largest religion with 1.9 billion followers, or 24.9% of the world’s population, So, do the Afghans who are attempting to flee, not believe in Islam?
The unpleasant truth is that those who are fleeing are not doing so because they are afraid of the Taliban. In fact, what they are fleeing is Islam itself. It’s Muslims feeling Islam because they are justifiably terrified of its 7th-century version in store for them. 
They wish to adhere to a faith that they have defined for themselves. However, the Islam that moderate Muslims across the globe follow is hardly the one that had been enshrined by the Prophet. The latter is mostly followed by the fundamentalist Islamic factions these days.
Afghanistan is a burning example of the fact that as a religion, and as a set of laws, Islam is inherently anti-women, anti-human-rights, and against the freedom of speech and expression. So even the most devout Afghan understands that if true Islamic laws are imposed, then women will have literally no rights left. Their right to education, work, run a business, move about freely, cast aside the burqa and the niqab, be independent, and live with dignity and honour — will cease to exist. If they so much as even try to enjoy a bit of independence, they will be accused of adultery, half-buried, and stoned to death by the Taliban. Whenever these men come to power, their first action is to violently attack the rights of women. Why? Because the first targets of the sacred texts and doctrines of Islam, of Islamic laws and customs, are always women. Whether consciously or not, what the Afghans today are running from is this fear. If the Taliban ruled by the principles of democracy and equal rights for all, instead of fundamentalist Islamic laws, then people would hardly feel the need to escape.
Some people say that ISIS, Taliban, Al Qaeda and Boko Haram’s version is not true Islam. But they do not clearly say what true Islam is and which countries are practising it. The truth is, not a single Muslim country, whichever version of Islam they follow, true or fake, treats women as equal human beings.
In a report I read a few days ago, a man from one of the Taliban-occupied areas sadly admitted – ‘We are deeply affected by the return of the Taliban. We can’t talk loudly at home, can’t listen to music, can’t send our daughters to the Friday market. They want to know about our family members. The sub-commander told us we can’t keep daughters at home once they are eighteen. It’s a sin, they must be married off.’
To keep a girl over eighteen at home is apparently a sin. The Taliban army wants a list made of all women and girls between fifteen and forty-five. They are to be wed to the members of their army. The ISIS had called on women to go and join them in their mission and forced these women into sexual slavery in the process. In the name of marriage, the Taliban want more or less the same.
Not many Muslims sympathise with the Afghan women tortured by the Taliban, or women enslaved by ISIS, but shed a tear for Palestinian women. I notice when Muslims torture their own kind, most Muslims are silent. When non-Muslims torture Muslims, most of them get furious. Taliban has already started erasing the pictures of women from Kabul walls because it’s a sin to look at them. They want to ‘erase’ womanhood as they consider it impure. Is this idea created by the Taliban? Of course not. Islam itself treats women as inferior and impure ‘things’, in my opinion, it is a religion riddled with misogyny.
Afghanistan is the new Syria. Next could be Pakistan, and then Bangladesh. Isn’t this Pan-Islamism? Will everyone in the subcontinent have to suffer the consequences of this Pan-Islamism? Will the governments of Pakistan, China, and Russia not bear their share of the responsibility? Rumour has it that the resurgence of the Taliban owes a lot to these three governments. How can any advanced nation of the twenty-first century aid and abet the return of barbaric seventh-century laws? No matter what political motives are behind this, if they are so grossly against the very idea of humanity, then those who continue to seek such gains are beyond any forgiveness and grace. It will not only be the Taliban terrorists, but also their ‘friends’ who are responsible for keeping Afghan women back by a thousand years.
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