Global Journal of Human Social Science, H: Interdisciplinary, Volume 23 Issue 5

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue V Version I Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 ( ) H 24 To What Extent Can Body Politics be used to Define Afghan Women's Sexuality as Locations of Power and Control under Taliban’s Rule? A Contemporary Foucauldian Interpretation of Femininity in Body Politics that when discussing the reality of Afghan women in such a repressive and male-dominated context, this idea of power supported by resistance is misleading. Contrarily, when the illusion of women resistance fades under the life threats of Taliban authority, Foucault’s power-resistance paradigm reinforces the sense of Taliban empowerment. I argue that Foucault’s power- resistance model prevents us from comprehending structural injustice in the context of Afghan women living under Taliban authority. Under Taliban corridors of power, women are subjected to many types of control and subordination, such as strict behavioural canons and gender segregation, meaning that dominance is common and frequently unavoidable in this context. This viewpoint is supported by the large number of women who committed suicide to avoid being raped or mass hanged while fighting Taliban’s control over their identities (Malik, and Jan, 2021). Questionably, when it comes to expatriated Afghan women activists who oppose the Taliban rule and are backed by a more liberal geo-political framework, the Foucauldian power and resistance paradigm may be a better match. Consequently, although being idealised within Afghanistan, resistance to the Taliban’s gender policy is identified predominantly outside the nation (McLeod, 2011). The Afghan Women’s Council based in Pakistan, and the Women's Association for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan based in the United States are just a few examples. However, to show the discussed case study as a totality of meanings (Odysseos, 2009), it is critical to engage with Foucault’s ideas on power, resistance, and sexuality interpretively via a hermeneutic filter. As a result, while Foucault’s idea of power bears flaws, it remains an important contribution to our understanding of Taliban authority, Afghanistan's patriarchal social structure, and the lack of a developed and centralized state. As a result, the role of women's bodies as status and power indicators in the political system is illuminated. Finally, this essay aimed to provide light on the condition of Afghan women under Taliban authority. Through an investigation of Taliban’s employment of sexist policies that convert women into instrumental “bodies”, sovereignty and societal control is exercised. From an introductory overview of the Taliban’s ascension to power and their related governance programme, Foucauldian biopolitics is discussed in terms of his theoretical support to this essay. The latter provides a theoretical prism through which to comprehend how the Taliban’s overarching socio- political control is entrenched in the symbolic and material management over women’s bodies (Fluri, 2012). Based on the notion that power shapes meaning conditions that circulate “through the entire social body” (Shepherd, 2008, p.23), this paper studied the micro- level practical meanings of Taliban bio-political policies in terms of women’s education, clothing, and medical treatment. Eventually, it became obvious that the socio- political architecture of Afghanistan under Taliban control is as much a product of gender as of biopolitical activities. Exploring their place in life’s politics helps us to think alongside and beyond Foucault, whose critique of power and resistance was addressed in the latest essay section. Arguably, understanding practises as means of the role biopolitics plays in the rational management of women’s sexuality is fundamental to address gender apartheid as part of a larger developmental picture to avoid further suffering that could eventually lead to gender genocide. While the examined case study attempts to go beyond a practical exercise, I believe Foucault’s theory of bio-power and control urgently calls for the global community to reflect on present body power producing methods. Individuals who have been silenced may only be given a voice by delving at the social discipline of human bodies, as the Afghan case demonstrates. Thus, a developmentalist project may be useful to end the replication of patriarchal power relationships and male privilege, as well as the persistence of gender inequity. 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