Part V: The Last Part
Written by Hassan Reza Khawari, Translated by Shekib Jaghori
4.3: The city as a space of liberation
Liberation, like happiness, requires its own environment. It is not to be found in the mountains or deserts, but in the bright horizon of the city, within a civil and rational framework. Violence arises from formless environments, from the absence of rational relationships, and from tribal and village structures. Liberation, by contrast, is only possible in the organized space of a city and its stable, conscious relationships.
Liberation is a civic concept. Its basis is reason, and its form is the city. Political authority and governance are not grounded in lineage, heritage, or tribe, but in breaking free from blood-based and patriarchal foundations and entering the universal realm of reason. In the city, women can bring their human capabilities from the margins to the center. They can realize their suppressed talents and arts, move into the realms of power, knowledge, and beauty, and intervene constructively and aesthetically in shaping public life.
In the city, women can think, speak, write, protest, resist, and criticize structural and national oppression with an independent and resonant voice. By reclaiming thought as their own, women return to their forgotten relationships in what has been called a “republic of silence.”[1] They can fill the language of the city with the echo of women’s voices, and with their conscious and deep presence, they can free public space from the rigidity of tradition and the ugliness of discrimination.
In the light of reason, such women survive the historical accusation of immaturity and the darkness of past eras. They do not need to pay tribute to false narratives of global powers or reduce their existential anxieties to the “empty words at donor tables.” Liberation is tied to critical consciousness and its necessary connection with urban justice. Women must first free themselves from ancestral illusions, and then, through justice and critical reason, make reason, justice, and beauty the inner essence of the city, of tradition, of language, and of the collective spirit of society.
Only then will the inherited chain of violence break, and in its place remain an intellectual, just, and beautiful legacy for the daughters of future generations. Women today must create a new inheritance for the women of tomorrow, one that grows not from the blood of patriarchy, but from shared human intellect; not from blind obedience, but from critical awareness; not from submission, but from creative thought and female empowerment.
Although this task arises from women’s experience, it is not solely the responsibility of women. It is a collective responsibility shared by all humanity, both men and women. The liberation of women is the liberation of society.
4.4: Liberation as a collective responsibility
After reflecting on the relationship between women, philosophy, and the city, it becomes clear that liberation is not only a social demand but an ontological necessity, touching the deepest layers of human existence. Women are not only social beings or historical victims; they represent a fundamental existential possibility, the possibility of redefining what it means to be human.
For centuries, humanity has been trapped in degrading representations, hierarchical divisions, and domineering dualities. Women’s entry into the realms of reason and civilization, together with their reassessment of values, transforms not only themselves but also the very definition and image of humanity. This transformation cannot be achieved through slogans or anger alone. It requires reflection, patience, expertise, historical awareness, measured criticism, and ultimately a philosophy of resistance. Resistance here is not only a reaction but a way of being: a way of living and making sense of oneself and the shared world, while honoring the beauty of diversity and difference.
From this perspective, women are not “the silent half of humanity.” They are the unheard voice of truth and the unseen face of beauty. When this voice awakens to self-awareness, it will break chains and shatter the constraints imposed by a discriminatory civilization. When this face shines, it will establish and sustain an “aesthetics of equality.”[2] Liberation is not only about freeing women from the margins, but about freeing humanity from its distorted understanding of being.
Such a transformation requires responsibility from all, men and women, educated and uneducated, traditional and modern, intellectuals and believers. No one is exempt, for this is not only a women’s issue but a human issue: the liberation of humanity from domination, superstition, humiliation, discrimination, fear, and repetition.
The responsibility of today’s women is to create a world in which future generations no longer need to defend their humanity, but accept it as fundamental. In this world, the female voice is not an echo from the periphery but one of the central voices in the discourse of truth, and a vital part of the aesthetics of equality, beauty, and civic grandeur.
4.5: Final conclusion, the transition from the ugliness of violence to the beauty of liberation
4.5.1: Violence and criticism
The degradation of women is not simply an individual or moral problem. It is rooted in social and cultural structures built on tribe, lineage, and faith. These patriarchal pillars not only marginalize women but render their very existence unimaginable. In a world defined by “lineage” and “blood ties,” women are not only subordinate but often regarded as “unimaginable” and “impossible to represent.”
As a result, women occupy a liminal position, neither fitting within the patriarchal Islamic system nor existing outside of it. This position grants women a crucial role in redefining humanity. The erasure of women within patriarchal structures does not only deny their identity, but distorts the image of humanity itself. As long as Afghan society sees humanity through the narrow lens of ancestral custom, the cycle of violence cannot be broken.
Violence against women is not a new phenomenon but a historically accumulated “cultural legacy” that has thrived under patriarchal civilizations and authoritarian ideologies. To break this cycle, two fundamental relationships must be rethought: between women and philosophy, and between women and the city. The first reveals women’s inherent connection to reason, ending the ancient accusation of “deficiency of intellect.” The second frees women from historical helplessness and admits them into the spaces of civic interaction and rationality.
4.5.2: Women, philosophy, and liberation
If Sharia is the voice of domination, philosophy is the voice of liberation. The issue is not to combine the two, but to separate them. In the Islamic world, Sharia represents official and unquestionable thought, while philosophy stands for critical consciousness and the possibility of freedom. This is why Sharia has always sought to suppress philosophers and philosophy itself.
Although ancient philosophies were not free of misogyny, some currents preserved the possibility of critique, renewal, and redefinition of humanity. From this perspective, philosophy provides a framework for liberation and makes deep change possible.
Philosophy, understood by the ancient Greeks as the love of wisdom, remains central. If we recognize patriarchal tyranny and treat philosophy as the foundation of critical reason, we can say: the distance between women and liberation is the distance between women and philosophy. Philosophy as the voice of liberation carries three principles: humanity, rationality, and civility. Without them, no emancipation is possible.
Certain conditions must be met for liberation:
1. A society willing to embrace civilization, that is, open to questioning and critical thought.
2. Communities of friendship, where people gather through dialogue and solidarity rather than lineage or faith.
3. Desire for continuous dialogue, a commitment that prevents violence, since violence marks the end of dialogue.
4.5.3: Woman, city, and the conquest of language
Liberation, like happiness, requires an enabling environment. Violence thrives in deserts and mountains, but liberation is born in urban space. The city is not only a physical structure but the rational horizon of coexistence. Here, women can think, speak, resist, write, and challenge oppression.
In the city, women can contribute to knowledge, exercise power, and bring vitality to civic life. They can reshape male-dominated structures from within and illuminate language with the resonance of the female voice. They can reclaim memory, transform silence into speech, and turn past suffering into a resource for the future.
Liberation in the city means breaking from ancestral myths, rethinking knowledge, and creating a new human legacy. It does not come from submission to global powers or reducing vital issues to “empty words at donor tables,” but from standing firm on the pillars of reason, justice, and beauty until they become embedded in tradition, language, and collective life.
4.5.4: Liberation as an existential responsibility
Liberation is not only a political or social demand. It is an ontological necessity. Women are not the silent remnants of oppression; they hold the possibility of redefining humanity itself. Women’s emancipation is the emancipation of humanity from alienation and violence.
But this cannot occur without philosophy, without the city, and without collective participation. The responsibility is shared by all: women and men, educated and uneducated, traditional and modern, intellectuals and believers. If today’s women understand that history is changed only through thought, then they can create for the daughters of tomorrow a world where humanity is taken for granted, a world in which the female voice is central to the discourse of truth and to the aesthetics of equality, beauty, and civic life.
Appendix: Gol-Begum as witness to the destruction of Afghan women’s lives
5.1: The absence of women’s voices and the prominence of violence
In Afghanistan’s violent history, women’s voices are not only faint but almost entirely absent. Women, both as victims and as bearers of memory, have rarely turned experience into narrative. Literature and historical records are equally silent. Few accounts have tried to view catastrophe from a woman’s perspective.
Against this backdrop, A Vizier’s Daughter: A Tale of the Hazara War stands out. Lillias Hamilton, a British physician at the court of Emir Abdur Rahman, tells the tragic story of Gol-Begum, a young girl from an enslaved tribe who yearns for freedom. Her testimony embodies both devastation and resistance.
5.2: Gol-Begum, an event within a tragedy
Gol-Begum is not just a victim but an event within the tragedy. She suffers violence but also resists it. Though her resistance ends in death, her death is filled with joy, as though she reached something greater than life itself.
Hamilton places Gol-Begum at the center of her narrative, viewing Afghanistan’s devastation through the girl’s almond eyes. She remarks: “Some may think that Gol-Begum is impossible; that such a country and such an environment cannot produce such a woman. But that is not true.” Even in the darkest abyss, resistance is possible.
The Afghanistan of the book is portrayed as a world without light, without hope, without peace: “no light shines, no bird of hope flies in its sky.”
5.3: From life story to paradigm of death
Gol-Begum’s story begins with childhood dreams in her village and ends with her death while fleeing slavery. The forty short chapters chart the destruction of her world: from Pashtun invasion and captivity to her final smile near freedom. Life is overshadowed by death, and justice by violence.
Her story is not an isolated case but a paradigm of systematic violence against women. Afghan women, in catastrophe, lost their ability to speak. Hamilton tries to give them voice, though as an outsider. This raises the question: can a silent woman speak only through another’s language? Is this testimony or compassion?
5.4: Strategies for revealing devastation
There are two ways to portray human devastation: in abstract, general terms, or in concrete, personal ones. Hamilton chooses the second, showing the fate of one enslaved girl to make suffering visible and relatable. She offers precise and vivid descriptions that overwhelm the reader, immersing them in devastation with a plaintive voice.
5.5: Liberation and responsibility toward victims
By writing, Hamilton makes herself a conscious witness responsible for the ruined lives of Afghan women. She refuses silence and assumes an ethical role. This testimony is more than history; it is moral intervention, expressing deep awareness and solidarity.
Hamilton not only reconstructs oppression but leads a collective of narrators in reclaiming the “city of language.”[3] This metaphor names the battlefield of recognition, narrative, and justice, from which Taliban violence has driven women. Hamilton shows that conquering it, controlling narrative, creating awareness, and defending voices, is possible. No window of truth can be permanently shut; language remains the last stronghold of women’s resistance.
The conquest of the city of language is a political and cultural victory that breaks chains of oppression and ignites hope. Narratives like A Vizier’s Daughter act as warriors, pushing back darkness and creating discourse that endures. Reclaiming this city is possible. Women can hold violent powers accountable and deliver them to justice. As Nietzsche wrote: “Truth is a woman.”
Footnotes
[1] Republic of silence (جمهوری سکوت) – a metaphor for the systematic cultural erasure of women’s voices.
[2] Aesthetics of equality (زیباشناسی برابری) – the idea that beauty is realized in equality and justice, not domination.
[3] City of language (شهر زبان) – a metaphor for narrative space where recognition, justice, and power are negotiated.
Note: The Photo is from the Internet
