Cost of Taliban misogyny

The UN’s top official for Afghanistan is warning that the Taliban’s continuing failure to keep their promises regarding the rights of women and girls are likely to lead to reductions in aid delivered to the country. Roza Otunbayeva, special representative of the UN secretary general for Afghanistan and head of the UN’s assistance mission in the country, has noted that the Taliban continue to impose increasingly harsh conditions on women, following up the ban on education with bans on visiting parks or working for NGOs. Mandatory face coverings are also being reimposed, and women are reportedly no longer allowed to leave their homes without a male relative. According to Otunbayeva, a former Kyrgyz president and the first female head of state of a Central Asian country, even essential aid is at risk because many donor countries and bodies have tied aid to human rights. The US has made it clear that they do not want to let the Taliban think they can have it both ways by failing to meet its commitments under the Doha Agreement while continuing to receive aid.

Many Afghanistan watchers have noted an increasingly visible rift within the Taliban. Most of the backtracking being cited by the international community is being blamed on Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, but a few powerful leaders, such as Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani, have publicly criticised Akhundzada’s decisionmaking, accusing him of “monopolising power and hurting the reputation of the entire system”. However, it is still unclear if Haqqani is an outlier or if there is substantial enough opposition to Akhundzada and the Kandahar camp’s policy U-turns to force positive changes. What is clear is that every day the ultraconservatives refuse to rethink their policies, more Afghans, men and women alike, will suffer. While Afghan apologists may blame the West for refusing to help after ‘breaking’ Afghanistan, the fact is that the party that needs help is the one that needs to bend, and that party is most certainly Afghanistan.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 11^th, 2023.

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