EDITORIAL: Although after seizing control of Afghanistan nearly a year-and-half ago the Taliban had promised a more moderate rule than their previous stint in power and to respect women’s rights within the bounds of Islamic teachings, they have continued to roll back women’s freedoms. In the latest move, the minister for high education has ordered all public and private universities to bar women from all private and public universities.
Girls’ secondary schools have already been shut. The crackdown on female education is a huge setback for the Afghan girls and women as well as the country’s prospect of progress. UN’s Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, has said it is a “new low for further violating the right to equal education and deepens the erasure of women from Afghan society”.
Predictably, several Western and Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Turkiye, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have strongly condemned the order, which effectively scotches the Kabul government’s wish for diplomatic recognition by the international community. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken made that clear in a statement, saying “the Taliban cannot expect to be a legitimate member of the international community until they respect the rights of all in Afghanistan”.
He also held out the threat that the move would “come with consequences for the Taliban.” This means the Taliban government will not receive any of its more than $7 billion of foreign exchange reserves held at the New York Federal Reserve Bank — the Biden administration has unfairly set aside $ 3-5 billion for the families of 9/11 victims — as well as critically needed foreign assistance from other sources.
Such measures at a time the Afghan economy is already in dire straits will further aggravate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan where the conditions are so grim that some families are reported to have sold one child to feed the others. But the Taliban remain insistent on imposing their obscurantist worldview — derived from archaic cultural traditions — on all Afghans at the expense of their well-being. They want to hold back half of the country’s population using the fair name of Islam. There is nothing in the faith that stops women from acquiring education or working in any field of human endeavour.
While expressing his disappointment over the Talban’s decision, Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari urged engagement with the rulers of Afghanistan. That makes sense considering signs of differences over policy matters between hardline and moderate groups of Taliban. The threat of “consequences” will only make the former double down. Gentle persuasion could help. Towards that end, Saudi Arabia with which the Taliban have a special religious and political affinity can play a productive role.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022