Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: Afghanistan
Delegate Name: Isha Oberoi
The delegation of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is determined to do what it can to advance women’s rights and alleviate their unpaid care and domestic work burdens through the UN. As an exiled government, we are committed to opposing the Taliban and their immoral, oppressive rule over women. True Islam does not justify the Taliban’s rule over women, and the Taliban’s interpretations of the Quran are misguided. We look forward to working together with other nations to address the conditions in which unpaid care and domestic work occur and why, how to increase awareness of unpaid labor, particularly in the area of family care, and how to create accessible education for women who are responsible for the care of their family. This is why the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan calls upon the consideration of subsidized checks for women in domestic work funded by the International Monetary Fund.
Conditions of Unpaid Care and Domestic Work:
Women are trapped in the domestic sphere in Afghanistan by the Taliban. The Taliban took away their right to work, to receive an education, and even to leave their houses without a male guardian. With this in mind, women shoulder a more disproportionate share of unpaid domestic work than ever before. Globally, women are already paid 24% less than men for the same work, even though women do nearly two and half times more unpaid care and domestic work than men do. Women also spend three times the amount of time men do with unpaid domestic work/care tasks. 76.4% of unpaid domestic care work worldwide is done by women, while 23.6% is done by men. In developing nations with unstable economies, women perform 80.2% of unpaid care. In Taliban ruled Afghanistan, unpaid domestic work functions as a method of survival for women including those in Taliban-permitted forced and child marriages. Before the Taliban took power again in 2021, women were encouraged by the Republic to work in both the private and public sectors where they earned payment. In 2021, the Taliban revoked working women’s jobs and forced them to go home because their jobs could be done by men. This meant hundreds of women were out of government jobs. The only job women could continue doing for the government was clean women’s bathrooms. Pre-Taliban, 27% of the 2,930 people working for the government were women. Effectively the only job left for women that is not domestic work is policing other women. The Taliban shut down another work environment that housed jobs for women, the Ministry for Women’s Affairs, and established the Ministry of Virtue and Vice (the Sharia religious/morality police, officially named the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice) in its place.
Islamic Views on Domestic Labor and Family Care Concerns:
Cultural norms and traditions have dictated women’s dominance in family care as their primary employment. As the Quran recognizes it, men and women are equal and because of this, sharing of the responsibilities of family care promotes the equality of men and women. Allah states in Quran 9:71 “The believing men and believing women are allies of one another.” Allah also recognizes in Quran 4:124, that “whoever does righteous deeds, whether male or female, while being a believer-those will enter Paradise and will not be wronged.” It can be concluded that Allah does not speak of male superiority and thus, emphasizes the equality of men and women in all aspects of life including domestic life. The prophet Muhammad speaks on the topic of family care in which he states that “He is not of us who does not have mercy on young children, nor honor the elderly.” By Islam, women are not to be the only spouse to care for the family, those responsibilities are to be shared among the two spouses. To care and provide for their children and to care for their elder family members as well. Considering the implications of religion on the treatment of women with emphasis on gender disparity in domestic life, this Republic suggests an international educational campaign for the purpose of clearing misguided interpretations of religious texts in relation to gender equality.
Accessibility of Education for Women and Girls:
Afghanistan was improving girls school enrollment rate by 10x since the end of Taliban rule in 2002. About 40% of girls in Afghanistan were enrolled in secondary school as of 2018, making immense progress from the previous figure of 6% enrollment in 2003. Under the Republic, women’s participation in political, economic and social spheres increased, and the gender inequality, while still significant, was lessening in all aspects of life. The Taliban eliminated this progress when they implemented a decree that bans women and girls from secondary schools and universities which has destroyed the economic prospects of women. It is common knowledge that each year a girl is participating in education, her economic prospects increase. These economic prospects could contribute millions to the Afghan economy. It is in our best interest as a nation to advance educational opportunities for women. However, in order to oppress women into submission, the Taliban is enforcing the education ban. By doing so, educated women understand the Taliban’s oppressive desires and they “do not want to confine” (themselves) “to the house.” Women want to continue their education but the Taliban spouts empty promises about allowing them to do so while women know the untrue nature of these promises. Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said women would be allowed to continue their education. “There are certain rules during their class time that must be obeyed that they could be safe and sound,” he said.” These “rules,” to no one’s surprise, turned out to be a ban on women and girls attending school or university at all. Every move the Taliban makes, it attempts to justify in the name of Islam, this ban on women’s and girls education is no different. However, once again the Taliban has misconstrued Islamic teachings because “His Holiness (aba) states, ‘at a time when girls were generally deprived of education, Islam championed their right to learning and categorically stated that every girl should be provided education and the means to better herself.’”
