The Buddhas of Bamiyan and The Taliban (May, 2001)

The following article was originally published on my then-current website on May 27, 2001.  I know it can get eye-roll-y sometimes when I talk about having had something right long before most people were paying attention, and the potential consequences if they’d listened.

At the time this article was written, most Americans had never heard of the Taliban except perhaps by reference in popular movies, and if they really had any familiarity at all it was with the previous name they were called in western media – the mujahadin.  The vast majority of people had never heard of Mullah Mohammed Omar, either. 

I recall that what prompted me to finally write this a couple of months after the fact was this news story:  https://edition.cnn.com/2001/US/05/17/us.afghanistan.aid/ In this story, we read of the $43 million grant given to the Taliban – ceremonially presented by Colin Powell – in May of that year as incentive for them to continue controlling the production and export of opium and its derivatives from Afghanistan.

Just six months before 9/11.

This representation has been altered from the original solely by the removal of two paragraphs expressing opinions I no longer hold and containing no information critical to understanding the story or my position.

I want you to read the last paragraph of this article and consider what the world would look like right now if that mass civil disobedience and immediate high-priority focus on the human rights crimes of the Taliban had happened when I suggested it…and just think about it next time you want to mistake ol’ JH for Yet Another Internet Know-It-All.  Thanks 🙂

This rant might be dated by a few weeks, but  I still feel the need to rant on it.  On March 2, 2001, a radical Islamic sect in Afghanistan known as the Taliban announced that they would be destroying all of the centuries-old megalithic statues of Buddha that are carved into the cliffside near Bamiyan in central Afghanistan, including the largest known statue of Buddha in the world.  The reason for this mindless destruction, according to Taliban supreme leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, is that their presence could induce the worship of ‘false idols,’ a sin under Islamic law.

This same Taliban, on May 1 2001, announced a complete ban on all non-Islamic music within the borders of Afghanistan.  The only music now permitted there is the singing of Islamic hymns and Taliban chants.

On May 22, 2001, in a move frighteningly reminiscent of pre-WWII Nazi Germany, the Taliban announced that all non-Muslims must wear distinctive marks on their clothing to set them apart from the country’s Muslim majority.

Since the Taliban began seizing  power in the mid-1990’s, their rulers have implemented a very strict series of laws aimed at adhering very closely to they hyperconservative letter of the ‘law,’ that is to say the Koran.  Today in Afghanistan, women are not allowed to work or attend school, and may not leave home unless veiled from head to foot; men must wear long beards and pray in Mosques 5 times per day.

Somewhere, right now, in Afghanistan, a beautiful wife is being beaten mercilessly for disobeying her husband, under sanction of law.  That beautiful wife has no choice – she cannot get a job to support herself, and even if she could, due to the illegality of educating women in Afghanistan, she’s not likely to have the skills to *perform* a job, other than as a maid, au pair, or whore.  Those are the only functions that women in Taliban Afghanistan are allowed to fill, and I personally find that offensive against the very nature of humanity in the highest degree.

It’s 2001, for crying out loud.  How in the world can this be going on today?  How can such oppression be allowed to continue?  I’m not a big one on war – it’s destructive and the usual victims are anyone BUT the people you’re shooting for – however, I firmly believe that strong, polylateral military action is not just required, but a moral imperative.  The idea that one madman, or a small collection of them, can be allowed to dehumanize people and destroy centuries-old artistic treasures – to hell with the religious import – is absolutely mind-boggling to me.

I call upon you, reader, to do whatever you must – write articles, letters to the editor, contact your congressman, write the president, whatever you have to do – to put an end to this unchecked madness in Afghanistan now, rather than waiting for 6 million more Jews (Gypsies, Catholics, disobedient wives, insert your afghan religious minority here) to be gassed to death before we step up and put a stop to it, like we did last time.

How many people have to die in the name of God?  How many priceless and timeless works of art, which are by convention and agreement the property of all humankind, will be lost forever to the ages due to the horrific acts of a few loose screws.  Afghanistan is the ONLY country in the world in which human rights were *more* protected under communist soviet rule.  The worst part is, WE helped put the Taliban in power by running out the Soviets.

I would like to make this a cause celebre amongst those of you reading.  Ideas – a petition?   a march on Washington?  some sort of mass civil disobedience? – are welcome in my mailbox – perhaps together, we can manage to do something about this.