President Trump signed the peace deal because he loves peace. He doesn’t want to harm any citizens, by chance or by accident or because of fighting. Sometimes it costs people’s lives. So he doesn’t want all that, because he loves people, he loves peace. But that doesn’t mean the Taliban can continue coercing them or intimidate them.
It was during war time, to protect women. The Blessed Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him, thus instructed the men to accompany them when the women have to go out. It is still useful nowadays, maybe in some cases, if there is some danger perceived in some unfavorable areas. But it should not be made compulsory as fixed, rigid rule.
This kind of rule will not work. It’s not practical. It’s too dictatorial. Because women, they have to go out. They must go out for their children, for their own needs, to go shopping for the family, to buy things to even clean the house, to buy things to wash their clothes. Everything. (Yes.) If they’re completely, always depending on their men, then the men will get vexed, (Yes.) and then turn violent. After all, men are also human. How long can he bear all this feeling of being nagged into doing everything, while the women can also do that? (Right.) Everything, like going to the doctor, he has to take her, and has to take her again and again and again, because you go to the doctor, don’t always just in one time finish. (Yes.) And then have to take the children to the school, and then take the children maybe to the doctor, and all kinds of things. You understand? (Yes.)
She cannot always rely on her man, all the time, 24/7. (Right.) That will breed resentment, from the man’s part, no matter how nice and gentle he is. Because he’s over-taxed his ability. (Yes.) He needs to earn a living, he needs to go out, and then he needs to see his friends and all the men’s stuff. And then he has to be nagged all the time (True.) by a helpless woman, because she is not allowed to do anything by herself, (Right.) to go out by herself. Even if she wants to rely on the men relatives, how many men relatives are ready for her all the time? (Yes.) Or in emergency? (Yes, Master.) Because these men relatives, they’re also busy for their wives, (Yes.) and their kids and their families, their mother, their sister, whatever. (Yes.) This is totally impossible. (Yes, true.) That’s why some of the Muslim Arab countries, they now allow women to drive. (Yes.) For God’s sake, they need to do something. They have to take their children to the school. They have to go shopping, (Yes.) to buy vegetables and food for the family. Cannot always make the man do everything. He has to take the kids to school in the morning early, and then work all day, and then come home, and then has to take the wife to go out shopping to buy food, and/or doctors, or whatever. (Yes.)
Life is not black and white like that. This seems very, very unwise; very illogical rule to me. (Yes, it is.) It’s absolute dictatorial, it’s never heard of. (Right.) Even in a communist country, supposed to be a very controlling system, but the women are free. (True.) They go anywhere they want. They even came to my ashram to see me, alone. Young or old. (Yes, Master.)
So this is worse than any system that exists on earth. It will not work. It will backfire. It already does. It already did. I saw on the news that some women are already even leading some men to protest. (Yes.) Continue like this, even inside the family, there will never be true peace and happiness. Because the man is overused. (Yes.) He is tired sometimes. He works all day, all night already, then comes back, has to take care of the whole family because the woman just asks him for anything, because she is not allowed to do anything by herself. (Yes.)
Not only do we lose the force of women’s intelligence and ability, we overburden the men. (Yes, it’s true.) Don’t let him even do his job properly or relax when he is not working. Even if the woman is not supposed to work, at least she can go out shopping and something. (Yes.) Everything ‒ the man, the man, the man, how can he bear it? (Yes, it’s…) That’s why many families have violence in this kind of system. (Understand, yes.) Even less restricted systems already have violence ruining families, because the men are overtaxed. (Yes.) I don’t know how anybody could think of such an impractical system. (Yes.) Unless they want to go back to many centuries before BC. Before Christ. (Yes.) Before the Prophet, Peace Be Upon Him.
I cannot believe all this. I cannot really believe what I read. It cannot be true! Now you know why. (Yes, Master.) OK? (Understand, Master. Totally.) Now you know why the women rise up. And many Afghans also rise up against them. The West is also not compliant now. (Yes.) The Taliban should be more careful. They are revolted against.
There are many forces against them. (Yes.) And they better do negotiations and talk. Even the ones that rise up against Taliban, they wanted negotiations, but the Taliban refused. And then the Taliban even threatened the West, like, “Get out before this and that deadline, or else.” (Yes.) Oh, they better not. Because the Americans and the Western military force, they might have gotten out of the country, but they can always come back. (Yes, true.) And stronger, more determined, if they do come back. (Right.) They are a force to be reckoned with, it’s not to be threatened or intimidated. (Yes.) Oh, they better not intimidate the Westerners. And the Americans, especially.
President Trump signed the peace deal because he trusted in human nature. (Yes.) He trusted the promise of the Muslim organization, because he believes Muslim is good, because the teaching is good. (Yes.) So, if you betray the teaching, that will not be a good excuse anymore for people to trust you.
So, President Trump signed the peace deal because he loves peace. He doesn’t want to harm any citizens, by chance or by accident or because of fighting. Sometimes it costs people’s lives. So he doesn’t want all that, because he loves people, he loves peace. But that doesn’t mean the Taliban can continue coercing them or intimidate them. (Yes.) They are not to be intimidated, the Americans. (Yes, true, true.) And God knows what kind of power and weapons they have.
Even if Taliban seizes all their leftover weapons, that’s nothing to them. They have more. And they have even better. (Yes.) More modernized. (Wow, yes.) So, I don’t know why the Taliban is so arrogant right now. They better not be. They better be more humble, more cooperative, and treat their citizens with respect and consideration. Not to talk about love and compassion yet. (Yes.) I don’t know if they’re capable of that. The way they torture women, kill women, or kill anybody at random like that, just because they worked for Americans.
They worked to earn a living. (Yes.) Not necessarily they love the Americans or anything. They had to do something to earn a living. (Yes, of course.) The Taliban wasn’t there to provide for them and their families. They had to work, (Right.) men or women. There are women doctors, women engineers, women architects, women scientists, pharmacists, all kinds of women who have been working in the society to contribute and to help the nation. (Yes, understand.) The Taliban wasn’t there to educate them, to help them. The Americans were there to protect this modernized system, so the women and men can work side by side, (Yes, right.) to strengthen the country.
So, they better treat them well. Not just kill anybody, just because they worked for America or because the relatives worked for Americans. That is absolutely taboo. (It is.) That’s barbarous! And that doesn’t earn any seat within the humane international society. (Yes, agree.) So, that’s what I’m thinking. And it will be like that if they don’t behave; if they don’t treat their own citizens humanely. Not to talk about respectfully yet, just humanely, (Yes.) comradely, because they are countrymen. They’re together. (Yes.) The same race, same blood. (Yes, exactly.) Blood is thicker than water.
If you don’t treat your own citizens well, how are you going to rule? Killing them all, and then you rule whom? Or who will work for you? There will be no doctors, no nurses because you killed all the women. Then whom are you working with? (Yes, Master.) Whom are you turning to?
There were even maybe some women police and whatever, they’re working in every field in the Afghan society. That’s the way it should be – women, men work side by side, equally, because God made women and men equally. (Yes.) God doesn’t say that men are superior to women. No! I don’t see any Koran sentence that says anything like that. (No, it doesn’t.) Just says respect, love, protect, all that. And if the Taliban don’t do anything like that, if they do things against the Koran, then they are going to be doomed. (Yes.)
Because not only will the Afghans rise against them, other Muslim countries also cannot look with a kind eye on such a system where they kill their own citizens with no reason. (Yes.) No sound reason. In the war, of course, there are two sides, each one works for their own ideal. (Right.) It’s the same. You fight for your ideal, they fight for their ideal. So they’re all equal. (Yes, exactly.)
So now that you win, you have to try to talk to them, not kill them. (Yes.) And the Americans come, then of course they need interpreters and all that, it’s a job. They have to do it. (Yes, of course. It’s just a job.) Yeah, they had to do it. Suppose some American soldiers misunderstood some of the Afghans at that time, and so if there are no interpreters, no translators, how can that Afghan woman or man explain their innocence to the Americans? (Yes.) I mean the stationed American soldiers at that time. (Right.) So interpreters are good (Yes.) for their own country. They need to work like that. (Yes.)
They need to work also to protect their own countrymen. So there is no reason to kill them, (Yes.) not at all. (Not at all.) Just a job. And if the interpreters are not there, there might be more misunderstandings, (Yes, of course.) there might be more killing or more dead or more imprisonment or whatever. Because nobody can explain the truth, as the Afghan women cannot talk because they don’t know anything, they were not allowed to learn anything. You understand what I’m saying? (Yes, understand.) So how are they going to even talk to the Americans, to explain their innocence?
And now the Taliban took over. If the women are not allowed to learn anything or and except the Koran. Then how are they going to know the law or the rules that the Taliban even laid down? (Yes. Right.) Then that will result in more deaths, more torture, just because the women don’t understand anything! Half of the country doesn’t understand anything. (Right.) They cannot read! (Yes, Master.) So how can you rule somebody who is just like deaf and dumb? (Yes.) This is ridiculous! Don’t you think? (It is. I agree.) It’s ridiculous!
I don’t know any educated group or organization that would make such a not practical rule and then punish women for not knowing. Even if they want to forbid women, don’t do this, don’t do that, the woman must know how to read it! (Yes, yes.) Suppose she doesn’t know anybody, she doesn’t have a husband, she lives alone with her old mother, who is going to read that to her? (Yes, exactly.) No strangers are supposed to go into her house, she doesn’t have any brothers or husband, she’s going to die for sure! Because she will commit many sins according to them, according to the Taliban’s rules, and then she will die for sure, they will torture her. (Yes.) She doesn’t understand the rules, she cannot read! Even forbid television or radio, cannot even sing, cannot even dance.
My God! This is too over-dictatorial, beyond dictatorial. (Yes.) Talking about all this brutal dictatorship, no one is so brutal like that, (Yes.) so controlling like that. I’m shaking with pain and anger at the same time.
(Master, is there anything at all that can make the Taliban realize that what they are doing is not right regarding women?)
Nah. I’m not sure what more lesson they want to learn. Because if they are going too far, the West may come back. And this time, the Taliban will be done, finished. Because they won’t let it happen again. (Yes.) They won’t let the Taliban have the upper hand anymore. (Yes.) I don’t know what can make the Taliban change their mind. Because they have been brainwashed in this system of their own making since a long time already. I don’t know how many years, even 20 years they did not change. (Yes.) The moment they took control, they kill women, they kill even interpreters’ relatives, and they’re hunting, killing even journalists’ brothers, or they’re hunting door-to-door. (Yes.) To track down whomever worked for the government or the West. (Right.) Everybody was scared.
Poor innocent people, they just worked for a living. (Yes.) It’s not easy to always find a job in any country. (Yes.) Especially good pay. Or their family needs. (Yes.) Their elder mother needs medicine, their sister maybe needs to go to school or something, and their children need to eat, to wear clothes. Even to go see relatives and friends, you need money to go by bus, by train, by taxi. (Yes, of course.) Need to wear decent clothes, and even these burqas that are so forced upon them, are very expensive. It’s not the normal price. (Understand.) So how do they get money if they don’t have work to do? (Yes.) They just worked wherever needed them. They worked with their own ability. Maybe they know some English but they cannot do anything else or they could not find any other job at that moment. So they have to help the Americans to understand their citizens. (Yes, Master.) They have to make a connection between the Americans and the Afghans. (Yes.) Who else can do it if there are no interpreters? (Right. Yes.)
And it was also because the Taliban was so brutal. That’s why they asked for the Americans to help. That’s why the Americans came. (Yes.) Otherwise, if it’s all peaceful and well like many other Arab and Muslim countries, the Americans don’t go there. (Right.)