The Taliban leadership has done some plain-talking and that is in need of being understood and supported. Pledging to resume normal school attendance for girls of all ages, the regime in Kabul has complimented the desire of the international community. Thus, with the beginning of new solar calendar year on March 21, known as Nauroz in Persian culture, it is likely to be all smiles for the fair sex as they are allowed to rejoin educational chores. This decision on the part of Taliban puts to rest reservations and apprehensions that the radical leadership may be in a mindset to go back to their yesteryear rule of repression, wherein women and minorities were discriminated against.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s deputy minister of culture and information, has brought to the fore a pertinent point. He rightly highlighted the question of ‘capacity’ for the resource-less and war-ravaged state to house such a large number of students, especially girls with proper segregated decorum for classrooms and even hostels, wherein it’s necessary. But the intention was clear i.e. the Taliban are not opposed to girls’ education and would not bar them from a proactive social life, too. This means Afghan women will be part and parcel of national life and that is established from the fact that women are already working in the government, education and health sectors, as well as in the high-profile domains of immigration and customs. This is a welcome beginning, and calls for pressing on Kabul to get more inclusive should take a break.
What is needed now is to help rebuild the impoverished southwest Asian state. Apart from an ensuing humanitarian exigency, the landlocked country is in need of aid and assistance to evolve it into a modern entity. It is good to learn that more than 80 per cent of the civil service is back to work, and the infant government has also laid down a forward-looking budget in its limited resources. The statehood is evolving, and the world community must do more than mere lecturing on dogmas. The UN chief is on the mark as he called for unfreezing Afghan money to save lives and get the wheel of economy rolling. There shouldn’t be any discord over it.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2022.
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