Canada’s minister for women and gender equality Maryam Monsef “has referred to the Taliban as ‘our brothers’ during a virtual news conference.
Monsef stated:
“I want to take this opportunity to speak to our brothers, the Taliban…“
“Our brothers?” Whose “brothers” exactly is Monsef referring to? As an elected representative, who once served as Minister for Democratic Institutions as well, Monsef is responsible for answering questions, yet she will not do so and likely could never answer honestly. So now she has opted to insult the intelligence of Canadians by attempting to explain away her reference to “our brothers” the Taliban as a “cultural” reference. I personally know many Iranian dissidents (Monsef was born in Iran to Afghan parents) who would never reference the Taliban as “our brothers.” So it depends on which “culture” Monsef is referring to. Could it be the culture of jihad?
To reference a group as “our brothers” implies cohesion and approval. Support for the Taliban has come from mainstream Islamic countries including Turkey, Pakistan, and Iran, and from Hamas as well. Perhaps those are the “cultures” Monsef was referring to. When such brotherly cohesion is intimated by a Canadian politician, there is cause for alarm.
Monsef knows full well what the Taliban represents for women and gender rights, which she has the responsibility to represent in Canada. The Taliban’s regulations for women will send chills down your spine. They include:
- killing women for not wearing a burqa,
- gouging out the eyes of a pregnant woman because she had a job,
- setting a woman on fire for “bad cooking,”
- going door-to-door, forcibly marrying girls as young as 12, and forcing them into sex slavery.