Could Kandy conservatism of 70-years ago and before be compared to Taliban restrictions?

With the Taliban having gained control of the whole of Afghanistan in August this year, even sooner than expected, after its thousands embroiled in warfare – this time more civil than directed by foreign forces – our thoughts focused on that mountainous region. Women the world over were perturbed that with Taliban control and rule being instituted, women in Afghanistan would have cruel rules re-imposed on them. I re-skimmed Anoja Wijeyesekera’s 2013 excellent book – Facing the Taliban: experiences of a UN Woman aid worker in Taliban controlled Afghanistan. Also read her online article on the Afghan situation:‘The tragedy of Afghanistan: is there a way forward?’ and an edited version in Interpress Service News on September 24; link being: http://www.ipsnews.net/2021/08/tragedy-afghanistan-way-forward/

It is a very perceptive article which ends in a plea that “the world help Afghanistan and not turn its back on it.”

Conservative Kandy society norms juxtaposed against some Taliban rules

Considering some of what the Taliban proposes Afghans under its rule observe, of course made to do so, I reminisced of long ago Kandy and its surrounding villages and how society lived in strict conservatism. Comparison would be interesting, I surmised, so I sent my mind way back to what I remember and what I had heard of, since when I was of discerning age conservatism had loosened its grip very much and I was not so strictly brought up.

Religions followed

The principal difference in the two situations is that the Taliban follows strict Sharia Law and we Kandy folk were in the majority Buddhists knowing full well the teachings of the Buddha as to observance of religion; living lay lives and treatment of women, where the Buddha gave women an even more significant and elevated position than that of men. It is a totally pacific belief, where injury to any other living being by word, deed and thought is totally forbidden.

Wikipedia defines Sharia Law “as a religious law forming part of the Islamic tradition, derived from the religious precepts of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic the term shari’ah refers to God’s immutable divine law and is contrasted with the ‘fiqh’ which refers to its human scholarly interpretations.” What we have heard and accept is that it is extremely strict, it is not really from the Prophet’s teaching, it is a deviant form from the Koran and it was man propounded. (This have I actually heard, first in Lahore 25 years ago from a woman lawyer and read about).

Rule for men

Anoja writes on page 66 of her book: “According to the Taliban edict, all men had to grow their beards. Mullah Omar commanded that the beard belongs to Allah and that no man could touch it.” If trimmed or cut, the person faced one hundred lashes in public, a fine and imprisonment. Laughable if not so tragically true. Vice and Virtue groups implemented laws with cruel force then during the first Taliban-in-power period. The present leaders may well revert to this law. Men were also forced to wear the traditional baggy trousers and long tunic and vest.

Were there rules for men in the early half of the 19th century in Kandy? None, I would boldly say except that unwritten strictures of morality and social living were strong and observed by most. Only a few truants then, unlike now. The man was the breadwinner and dutiful to parents and wife and family. He knew his responsibilities and carried them out. I cannot remember from my childhood, misbehavior due to drunkenness or wife beating even among the villagers we holidayed among at my grandparents’ home. My uncles imbibed, but the one who did not, rose to a high position. My father and brother who took over the family when Father died at 41, were strict teetotalers. Men were free of any strictures covering appearance or dress.

Marriage

It was an encouraged practice in Afghanistan under the Taliban for a man to have four wives. Thus well-to-do men had wives as young as 12. For a woman it was absolute devotion to one man. Anoja reports on meeting a young 12-year old pre-teenager married to a man as old as her grandfather! Some Taliban leaders themselves demanded attractive young girls they saw.

Adultery meant death by stoning; it may have been the fate of the adulteress, the man getting away. Women of course were expected to be faithful slaves to their single husbands. Marriage in the old Kandyan province was strictly monogamous though according to historians polyandry was practiced where one woman had two or even more husbands. This practice, rare as it was, was solely due to concern over property and had not the slightest religiousness in it. Two brothers married one woman according to tales told. Polygyny was not tolerated but of course who knows, men may have had mistresses. Never heard of in our vastly extended paternal and maternal families. Friends would speak of grandmothers who were married at around 14 years, but never after the 1920s. However, even in my time, a girl was supposed to be married in her very early twenties. Curious questions were fielded by gossips if a girl was 25 or more and unmarried. Dowries were never asked for or bargained for, though of course the girl was endowed in proportion to the financial status of her parents. Even the ubiquitous magul kapuwa in his black coat with umbrella, did not formerly enquire about dowry.

Restriction of women

It is the utterly unfair and infamous restrictions that women had to suffer under previous Taliban regimes that causes the most fear and trepidation that women’s rights would be totally trampled and they would again be cruelly restricted in this second decade of the 21st century. The Taliban spokesman speaking over BBC in English in late August 2021, said women will be allowed education and to follow careers, but added “under Sharia Law.” There lies the crunch. The Afghan woman enjoyed 20 years of schooling, even higher education in Kabul and overseas and held jobs, many in foreign organizations. A huge question lies over the future of the women left behind in the country.

In the early 20th century in the Kandy district, education for a girl was not considered important as long as she grew up chaste and able to manage house, sew and be savvy over money saving. Mother being the eldest in her family and doted on by Grandfather, a true patriarch of the family and village, was safely escorted to the village school. But her two younger sisters were boarded at Girls’ High School, Kandy and played netball etc.

Mother was adamant her four daughters have their education to Senior Cambridge level at KHS, going against two uncles’ admonition to go to the village once my father died. I was off that restriction of school to a certain level and then a suitable marriage. Jobs for women were strictly frowned upon. Only Burgher girls went in for nursing and a few others into teaching. But Mother relented and allowed my second sister to teach (1940s) and the third to get tuition in math to enter University College, which she however did not. Marriage was the elders’ preference for her.

Women’s dress

The all enveloping cruelly injurious-to-sight burka insisted upon by the Taliban may return. TV shots of Kabul show more of these light blue tent like garbs evident. The eyes do not even have a slit to look through; the burka has a material-latticed slip for each eye. What an impediment. No part of body flesh can be shown.

Dress was modest in the old Kandy and its surrounding villages. Dresses were for young girls, but length above knees was strictly controlled. Once she grew up it was the half sari with a blouse which sported a long fringe around it. Missionary schools like Kandy High and the Convent insisted on uniform dresses; half saris in white were permitted. Soon enough the young girl was in full sari and her hair in a kondé. Senior girls in Hillwood were thus attired even in the early 1950s but played ferociously on netball field and tennis court.

Chaperonage

The Taliban forbids woman from even going marketing unaccompanied by a male who is her husband, father, brother or such like. Punishment is severe for breakers of this rule.

In Kandy of those days chaperonage was insisted upon. No girl groups could go traipsing around. My sisters, even in the 1940s, were not allowed to sit in our open verandah unless with an elderly woman chaperone. Modesty and good upbringing were targeted, and stoppage of in-law aunts gossiping.

Concluding view

No justified comparison is to be, or can be made of Taliban laws against what prevailed in the Kandy District in the first half of the 20th century. We were patriarchal but benignly so and women held their respected place; not even the faintest whiffs of mujahidin-ness would be tolerated. Some opine that our conservatism was Victorian, influenced by Brit rule. Not so. It was cultural and handed down through the generations with changes and increased laxity. Thus society and homes were settled, safe, secure and happy.