Two Years After Afghanistan Exit, Biden Resists Calls for More Taliban Contact

Reporting from Washington

The New York Times

When the last American soldier flew out of Afghanistan on Aug. 30, 2021, leaving the country to Taliban rule, the world braced for a human rights nightmare.

In that sense, the Taliban have met expectations. The country’s extremist rulers, who seized power from an American-backed government of 20 years, have carried out revenge killings, torture and abductions, according to international observers. They have also imposed the world’s most radical gender policies, denying education and employment to millions of Afghan women and girls — even shutting down beauty parlors.

On Aug. 14, a group of United Nations officials issued a report saying the Taliban had engaged in “a continuous, systematic and shocking rescinding of a multitude of human rights, including the rights to education, work, and freedoms of expression, assembly and association.”

Some analysts and U.S. officials had clung to the hope that the Taliban had moderated since they last controlled the country in the 1990s, or that they would at least make concessions to Western demands on human rights to win diplomatic recognition or economic aid as the country suffers a deepening humanitarian crisis.

It was not to be.

“The concept of a ‘reformed’ Taliban has been exposed as mistaken,” the U.N. experts wrote.

As a result, Biden administration officials have ruled out the possibility that they would agree to Taliban demands for international recognition, sanctions relief and access to billions of dollars of assets frozen in the United States.

At the same time, aspects of Taliban rule have modestly surprised some U.S. officials. Fears of civil war have not materialized, and the Taliban have cracked down on corruption and banned opium poppy cultivation, although it remains to be seen how strictly the ban will be enforced.

And on President Biden’s top priority for the country — preventing a return of terrorist groups that might threaten the United States — the Taliban leaders appear to be meeting Washington’s approval. That is crucial, given that the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001 because the Taliban harbored leaders of Al Qaeda who plotted the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

“I said Al Qaeda would not be there,” Mr. Biden said on June 30, in response to a reporter’s question about the American withdrawal. “I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now?”

The question was rhetorical; Mr. Biden’s clear implication was that he had been vindicated by his decision to withdraw American troops.

That has not been enough to persuade Mr. Biden to restore any U.S. support to the country. But some humanitarian groups and Afghanistan experts are calling on the Biden administration to soften its position and, at a minimum, provide the Taliban with direct economic assistance to alleviate the country’s desperate poverty and hunger.

“The world needs to think hard about what it’s trying to achieve in Afghanistan these days, and most of the stuff we want to do requires working with the Taliban,” said Graeme Smith, an analyst at the Crisis Group who has worked in Afghanistan since 2005 and recently spent months in the country assessing conditions under Taliban rule.

Mr. Smith recently wrote an essay in the publication Foreign Affairs urging Western governments and institutions “to establish more functional relationships with the Taliban.” That could include assistance with the country’s electricity grid, banking system and water management, Mr. Smith said.

The need is especially acute, Mr. Smith added, given that international humanitarian aid — which the United States and other countries currently send directly to aid groups, circumventing the Taliban government — has been dwindling.

Such cooperation is unlikely in the near term, Mr. Smith said, given what he called the “toxic politics” of Afghanistan. Republicans have attacked Mr. Biden for what they called a poorly managed and undignified exit from the country, a dynamic that may be making the president more risk averse.

“If Biden is re-elected, that will buy him a little bit of operating space for some practical solutions,” Mr. Smith said.

Taliban officials say U.S. policies are exacerbating suffering in Afghanistan, because longstanding American sanctions against Taliban leaders discourage foreign investment and trade in the country.

They insist that the United States has no right to hold $7 billion in assets deposited by their predecessors at the Federal Reserve in New York. (Mr. Biden last year ordered half that money into a trust for the humanitarian needs of Afghanistan’s people.)

The Biden administration has some contacts with Taliban representatives. Over the past two years, Thomas West, the State Department’s special representative for Afghanistan, has traveled to Doha, Qatar, for several meetings with Taliban officials, most recently on July 30 and 31.

An official State Department description of that session criticized the Taliban and “the deteriorating human rights situation in Afghanistan, particularly for women, girls and vulnerable communities,” and said U.S. officials “expressed grave concern regarding detentions, media crackdowns and limits on religious practice.”

But the summary also offered some positive words about declining opium poppy production, promising economic indicators and counterterrorism efforts, and it hinted that further cooperation might be possible. At a meeting with Afghan government finance and banking officials, the description said, Mr. West and his colleagues “voiced openness to a technical dialogue regarding economic stabilization issues soon.”

On Wednesday, the White House released a statement from Mr. Biden marking the second anniversary of the war’s end. “We have demonstrated that we do not need a permanent troop presence on the ground in harm’s way to take action against terrorists and those who wish to do us harm,” Mr. Biden said. He added that the U.S. is the world’s largest donor of humanitarian assistance for the country.

When it comes to cooperation against terrorism, however, some officials and analysts remain deeply mistrustful, fearing that the Taliban are merely containing Al Qaeda in the short term to avoid provoking the United States. The Taliban are also battling a local branch of the Islamic State terrorist group. But some say that means little, given that the Islamic State openly challenges Taliban rule, making such operations clearly in the Taliban’s self-interest.

“Seeking to engage the Taliban on terrorism while ignoring what they do to women is a mistake,” Lisa Curtis, a National Security Council official in the Trump White House, said at a panel hosted by the Middle East Institute in July.

The Biden administration draws clear limits on such contacts, however. “Any kind of recognition of the Taliban is completely off the table,” a deputy State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, told reporters in April. And officials say American diplomats will not return to Kabul, the capital, any time soon.

Zalmay Khalilzad, who served as President Donald J. Trump’s envoy to the Taliban and negotiated the troop withdrawal plan that Mr. Biden inherited, argued for a change in U.S. policy. “We have wished the problem to go away,” he said.

Mr. Khalilzad is among those who say that, relative to the worst expectations, the Taliban have shown some restraint.

“Many thought things would be a lot worse than they are — that there would be a lot more terrorism, a lot more refugees, and that there would be bloodshed” on a much wider scale, he said.

But granting the Taliban any credit remains highly controversial. Last month, a senior Conservative Party member of Britain’s parliament, Tobias Ellwood, traveled to Afghanistan and posted a video declaring it “a country transformed” — in many ways for the better. “Security has vastly improved, corruption is down, and the opium trade has all but disappeared,” he asserted, adding that the economy was growing.

Mr. Ellwood called for Britain to reopen its embassy in Kabul, which was shuttered in August 2021, and for his government to engage with the Taliban rather than “shout from afar.”

Two Years After Afghanistan Exit, Biden Resists Calls for More Taliban Contact
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Two years after U.S. withdrawal, Afghan refugees wait for asylum

By

The Washington Post

For more than a week that August, the family hid in houses in Kabul, waiting for their chance to leave. On Aug. 25, 10 of them made it onto a flight out of the country, unsure of their destination. After a brief stopover in Qatar, they were told on their flight that they were going to the United States. They landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington on Aug. 29, 2021.

The day after they left Kabul, Mohibullah’s wife and four children were planning to board a plane. Farid’s mother and five of his siblings were supposed to come, too. But a suicide bombing at the airport killed about 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members. The rest of the family never made their flights out.

“No one made that decision to emigrate,” Mohibullah said. “It was something [that] happened overnight. No one was thinking tomorrow he will be separated with his family and then he cannot see, or she cannot see her children or her parents.”

Now, two years later, the family remains thousands of miles apart. Mohibullah and Farid, along with their relatives who were with them, were granted two years of humanitarian parole to stay and work in the United States. In May this year, the Biden administration announced an application process for refugees to extend their parole two more years.

But the temporary nature of humanitarian parole means that the Nooris live in uncertainty about their future. Mohibullah and Farid applied for asylum more than a year ago but haven’t received an answer. And while they wait to hear if they’re approved, they say they can’t leave the United States to visit their family, who have since made it out of Afghanistan to another country.

U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services told The Washington Post they are working to expedite the 19,000 asylum applications from Afghan nationals who arrived as part of Operation Allies Welcome. USCIS said it is working diligently to complete the final adjudication within the time frame required by Congress — 150 days — although it says it may not be possible to meet that deadline.

In 2022, a bipartisan group of Senators introduced the Afghan Adjustment Act as a way to provide expanded visa access to Afghan refugees. It was blocked by Sens. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Grassley cited concerns about the vetting process. Although the bill was reintroduced in July, it remains stalled.

“For the Afghans, there’s a lot of behind the scenes politics that prevent it from moving forward,” said Ali Karim, founder of the nonprofit Global Shout, which has been assisting some of the refugees with resettlement. “One time, they’d actually attached the Afghan Adjustment Act to a bill for Ukrainian spending. And it was removed from that bill after it had gotten forward almost to the approval stage. And then the Ukrainian spending bill went forward, but the Afghan Adjustment Act fell to the wayside.”

While they wait for some certainty about the future, Mohibullah and Farid have frequent video calls with their family members. Farid is engaged to a fiancé who is stuck overseas, waiting to be together so they can get married. Mohibullah’s children often ask when they will be reunited. They draw pictures for him and sing him songs. His youngest daughter was only about a month old when he left.

“Always they are asking why, when my father will come, when we will go to USA,” said Arifa Noori, Mohibullah’s wife.

“Whenever God is willing,” said Mohibullah.

Whitney Shefte is a Peabody, Emmy, Murrow and Pictures of the Year International (POYi) award-winning senior video journalist at The Washington Post, where she has worked since 2006.
Two years after U.S. withdrawal, Afghan refugees wait for asylum
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US Ambassador: Ban on Girls Education ‘Most Unconscionable Act of Taliban’

Van Schaack added that in all their engagements with the Islamic Emirate, they are pushing to have some of these restrictions relaxed.

Beth Van Schaack, the US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice, said that the bans on girls’ education is one of the most unconscionable acts of the current Afghan government.

Van Schaack added that in all their engagements with the Islamic Emirate, they are pushing to have some of these restrictions relaxed.

“When it comes to girls’ education, indeed this is one of the most unconscionable acts of the Taliban, to deny young girls the ability to plan their own life paths, to operate in public, to have – to contribute to the growth and vibrancy of that particular society. And so in all of our engagements there we are constantly pushing to have some of those restrictions be relaxed,” Van Schaack noted.

The US ambassador-at-large for global criminal justice further stated that the International Criminal Court does have an open investigation and has indicated that it is prioritizing crimes committed by the Taliban.

“The International Criminal Court does have an open investigation and has indicated that it is prioritizing crimes committed by the Taliban and other non-state actors and that the prosecutor has appointed a senior special advisor on gender persecution who has put forth a very comprehensive policy on how the Office of the Prosecutor should prosecute gender persecution before the International Criminal Court. Now, no charges have been forthcoming, but we do anticipate that they will be, and so that’s an area to watch,” Van Schaack added.

The Islamic Emirate so far has not commented on this matter, but it has always said that the ban on female education is not permanent, and they are trying to solve this problem.

It has been over two years that girls above sixth grade have been banned from attending school, the issue which sparked reactions inside and outside the country. Some girls asked the Islamic Emirate to reopen schools for them.

“We ask the Islamic Emirate to reopen schools, universities and educational centers for us, because Afghanistan cannot be completed without women and cannot progress,” said Maryam, a student.

Earlier, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that that the US has been very clear about the education of girls in Afghanistan.

Addressing the press conference, Jean-Pierre said that Washington remains laser-focused on trying to support and assist the Afghan people without bolstering the Islamic Emirate.

US Ambassador: Ban on Girls Education ‘Most Unconscionable Act of Taliban’
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Muttaqi Says Weakening Afghan Interim Govt Harms Everyone

Addressing the same gathering, the country’s Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, called on the people to support the Islamic Emirate.

The acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said that weakening the Afghan government will harm everyone and that the international community has assured the Islamic Emirate that they don’t support the armed resistance against the interim government.

Speaking at a large gathering of religious clerics and influential figures of the country, Muttaqi said that Afghan soil is not a threat to any country and there is a need for the international community have a moderate policy towards the Islamic Emirate.

“There is no opposition all over Afghanistan. The whole world assured us that they don’t support the armed opponents. This opportunity should be used considering the policy of the Islamic Emirate and its moderate policy which doesn’t want Afghanistan to become a battlefield for negative powers,”  he said.

Addressing the same gathering, the country’s Interior Minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, called on the people to support the Islamic Emirate.

“The reconstruction needs patience and major engagement. Bullying has ended and a pure independence has been ensured,” he said.

The participants issued a resolution of 12 principles, in which they also stressed the facilitation of religious and modern education based on Sharia and Afghan culture.

The statement also stresses the need for engagement of the Islamic Emirate with the international community within a Sharia and Islamic framework. They also called for releasing Afghanistan’s assets abroad and lifting sanctions as well as economic cooperation by the international community.

“The Ulema and influential figures wants the Islamic Emirate to take necessary actions for engagement with the world while considering Islamic Sharia, independence, reputation of Afghanistan, national reconciliation and based on the current conditions,” said Sultan Ahmad Adel, head of the Ulema council at 22nd PD in Kabul.

“We are opposing modern education. We need medical, science, physics, chemistry, and biology,” said Deen Mohammad, head of the Kabul Ulema.

The gathering of the religious clerics and influential figures comes as the international community has repeatedly called for national consensus and national dialogue in Afghanistan in a bid to solve the ongoing challenges of the country.

Muttaqi Says Weakening Afghan Interim Govt Harms Everyone
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Japanese Envoy Urges Afghan Interim Govt to Strengthen Internal Legitimacy

Richard Trenchard, FAO Representative in Afghanistan, said that the project will begin mid next year.

The Japanese Ambassador in Kabul, Takashi Okada, called on the Afghan “de facto” authorities to strengthen legitimacy within the country to expand international cooperation.

Speaking at a signing ceremony for “Enhancing Agriculture Production through Community-Led Irrigation between the Embassy of Japan and FAO”, Okada said:

“For the expansion of international cooperation, the de facto authorities first needs to strengthen… legitimacy within the country by prioritizing people’s needs. When it happens, its external relations will be improved.”

During the ceremony, a water project worth $9.5 million in eastern Kunar province was kicked off. The project was signed between the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN and Japan.

Okada said that approximately 12,000 people will benefit from the project.

“With this agreement, the Japanese government will provide approximately $9.5 million to FAO for the rehabilitation and expansion of Tetsu Nakamura’s legacy project,” he said.

Richard Trenchard, FAO Representative in Afghanistan, said that the project will begin mid next year.

“The construction will begin next year. In the middle of next year. Involving local Afghan companies and the project will be completed by 2027,” he said.

Japanese ambassador once again reiterated his country’s support to the people of Afghanistan.

Japanese Envoy Urges Afghan Interim Govt to Strengthen Internal Legitimacy
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US Congressman Says Withdrawal Occurred in ‘Wrong Way’

Earlier, a number of US House of Representatives members voiced their opposition to the American forces’ departure from Afghanistan.

A member of the US House of Representatives described the US withdrawal from Afghanistan as a mistake on the eve of the two-year anniversary of the departure of the last American soldier from Afghanistan.

In an interview with FOX News, Mike Garcia, a member of the US House of Representatives representing California’s 27th Congressional District, claimed that hundreds of “Afghan partners” are currently being killed in Afghanistan.

“We all know the way we withdrew was the wrong way, and that’s why we lost so many lives and left so many folks behind. And now there’s literally hundreds and thousands of Afghan partners being killed on a daily basis under this current Afghan Taliban regime,” he said.

Meanwhile, the deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate Bilal Karimi, denied these claims, saying that the Islamic Emirate is committed to general amnesty in the country.

“We strongly reject this. The Islamic Emirate has announced a general amnesty and tens of thousands of former administration forces in Afghanistan are currently living in peace and safety,” Karimi noted.

“Mysterious murders in Afghanistan have recently increased, so these remarks apply to the current circumstances in Afghanistan where such crimes occur,” said military expert Sadiq Shinwari.

Earlier, a number of US House of Representatives members voiced their opposition to the American forces’ departure from Afghanistan.

US Congressman Says Withdrawal Occurred in ‘Wrong Way’
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Iran President Says Islamic Emirate Allowing Experts to Check Water Levels

Speaking at a press conference, Raisi note that his country has good relations with all its neighbors and is bound by the Helmand River Water Treaty.

Amid tensions between Kabul and Tehran over the Helmand River’s water supply, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Iranian specialists are looking into the water supply of Sistan and Baluchistan from Afghanistan.

Speaking at a press conference, Raisi note that his country has good relations with all its neighbors and is bound by the Helmand River Water Treaty.

“These negotiations resulted in the dispatch of our expert group, and they (the Islamic Emirate) accepted the expert group to check and see whether the water is sufficient for us to meet the water needs in Sistan and Baluchistan, which is being followed up and investigated,” Raisi added.

In the meantime, Ali Salajegheh, the Vice President of Iran and the head of Iran’s Department of Environment, said in a press conference that the authorities of the Islamic Emirate agreed to pay the country’s water rights from the Helmand River if the conditions in terms of rainfall are suitable, and, according to Salajegheh, Afghanistan also does not have favorable water conditions.

However, the Islamic Emirate said that climate change is to blame for the nation’s current drought and asserted that it is equally committed to the terms of the 1973 pact between the two nations.

“Climatic changes and continuous droughts that have occurred have caused water shortage problems. The Islamic Emirate provides water rights according to the 1973 treaty,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.

“If Iran always blames Afghanistan, I don’t think that would be Afghanistan’s fault because we do not consider it necessary to send a lot of water to another country until the country solves its need for water,” Shaker Yaqoubi, an economist said.

Previously a delegation of Iranian experts traveled to Afghanistan and visited the water meter of Dehravud.

According to the 1973 treaty, Afghanistan is committed to sharing water from the Helmand River with Iran at the rate of 26 cubic meters of water per second, or 850 million cubic meters per annum.

Iran President Says Islamic Emirate Allowing Experts to Check Water Levels
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Heather Barr: UN Human Rights Meeting Planned for September

Meanwhile, a number of women’s rights activists are asking the UN to take action on human rights issues, especially to support women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Heather Barr, director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said that the Human Rights Council meeting will be held in Geneva in September of this year.

Heather Barr told TOLOnews that various issues will be discussed at the meeting, including the extension of the mission of the UN Special Rapporteur for Afghanistan.

“The council will convene again in September and there are a couple of things on their agenda that are extremely important for Afghanistan. One is that they will be deciding about whether to renew the mandate of the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan. Another issue is that, in their joint report, the special rapporteur and the working group recommended that states should mandate or report on the issue of gender apartheid and how that might apply in Afghanistan. So, it will be interesting to see whether the human rights council takes up that recommendation or not. And then, a third issue is that Human Rights Watch and other human rights organizations have been pushing hard to say that the human rights councils should also set up a new separate UN mandated mechanism to collect evidence and preserve evidence of human rights violations being committed in Afghanistan,” she said.

Meanwhile, a number of women’s rights activists are asking the UN to take action on human rights issues, especially to support women’s rights in Afghanistan.

“Religion has given us human rights, so why are we far from it, why do we not have them, why are the programs that are implemented ineffective and not having a positive impact? The reason is that these programs are symbolic,” Mina, a women’s rights activist, said.

“The fact that the UN and the countries of the world hold the meeting regarding human rights is important for us. It should not be theoretical, but it should have practical measures too,” Alamtab Rasouli, a women’s rights activist said.

However, the Islamic Emirate argued that in international discussions regarding Afghanistan, more focus should be placed on the Islamic Emirate’s accomplishments.

“They should have good supervision regarding the progress of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the fact that a 44-year war has come to an end and progress has been made in the economy and other fields,” said Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesman of the Islamic Emirate.

Several human rights organizations have voiced their concerns over the human rights situation in Afghanistan.

Heather Barr: UN Human Rights Meeting Planned for September
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White House: We Are ‘Very Clear’ on Support for Afghan Girls

Meanwhile, some students asked the current government to reopen schools and universities for girls in the country.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that that the US has been very clear about the education of girls in Afghanistan.

Addressing the press conference, Jean-Pierre said that Washington remains laser-focused on trying to support and assist the Afghan people without bolstering the Islamic Emirate.

“We have been very clear in laying out our concerns, such as girls’ education, with the Taliban. We have been consistent with that. We’ve been very clear of that. And so, we also remain laser-focused on trying to support and assist the Afghan people without bolstering the Taliban. And so, that’s something that we’re going to continue to do. That’s something that the President is going to continue to be clear about,” she said.

Meanwhile, some students asked the current government to reopen schools and universities for girls in the country.

“We ask the Islamic Emirate to open the schools. Women have the right to study and perform duties and build the future of their country,” said Husna Ahmadzai, a student.

“Even though I was in the 12th grade, I could not participate in the entrance exam and get into the university. Please open the schools for us,” said Naderia, a student.

The deputy spokesperson for the Islamic Emirate, Bilal Karimi, said that all Afghans’ rights are upheld within the confines of the Islamic law.

“Afghanistan’s internal issues are related to the Afghan people. Interference from outside cannot be justified,” Karimi noted.

The international community also views the right of women to work in Afghanistan and the ability of girls and women to receive an education as requirements for recognizing the Islamic Emirate.

White House: We Are ‘Very Clear’ on Support for Afghan Girls
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Rights groups condemn Taliban’s new curbs on women’s education, movement

Al Jazeera
Published On 28 Aug 2023

Watchdogs slam Taliban’s ‘flagrant violation of the right to education and freedom of movement’ after Afghan women stopped from boarding a flight to Dubai to study on a scholarship.

Human rights groups have condemned the Taliban’s latest restrictions on Afghan women’s education and movement after it barred them from visiting one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks and stopped them from leaving for the United Arab Emirates to study on academic scholarships.

Amnesty International said it denounced the Taliban’s latest action prohibiting female students from travelling to Dubai to start their university studies.

“This preposterous decision is a flagrant violation of the right to education and freedom of movement and demonstrates the continued gender persecution against women and girls in Afghanistan,” the rights group said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“The Taliban de-facto authorities must immediately reverse their decision and allow these female students to travel and study.”

 

The head of a Dubai-based conglomerate said Taliban authorities had stopped about 100 women from travelling to the UAE, where he said he had sponsored their university educations.

Khalaf Ahmad al-Habtoor, founding chairman of Al Habtoor Group, said in a video posted on X that he had planned to sponsor the female students to attend university and a plane he had paid for had been due to fly them to the UAE on Wednesday.

Al Habtoor included audio of one of the Afghan students who said she had been accompanied by a male chaperone but airport authorities in Kabul had stopped them from boarding the flight.

Students bemoan lost opportunity

Laila said their scholarships were their “only hope to go abroad to continue our education”.

“This was an amazing opportunity for us, but like everything else, this opportunity was taken from us,” she told the Agence France-Presse news agency.

The 22-year-old was due to start a law degree in Dubai, having been forced to abandon her journalism studies under a Taliban government ban.

Laila said she and the other women made it to their departure gate but were turned away at the last moment by men in airport uniforms who said they had an order that those with student visas were not allowed to leave the country.

The Taliban administration has closed universities and high schools to female students in Afghanistan.

In a video posted on X, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged the international community to “press the Taliban to end their violations of women’s rights”.

 

Women banned from entering national park

On Sunday, the Taliban government’s Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice closed the Band-e-Amir national park to women, saying female visitors were failing to cover up.

The park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site 175km (110 miles) west of Kabul, is renowned for its striking blue lakes surrounded by sweeping cliffs.

The park in Bamyan province is a popular spot for domestic tourism and is regularly swarmed with Afghans relaxing at the shore or paddling the waters in rented boats.

HRW Associate Women’s Rights Director Heather Barr told AFP the decision to ban women was “cruel in a very intentional way”.

“Not content with depriving girls and women of education, employment and free movement, the Taliban also want to take from them parks and sport and now even nature,” she said in a statement.

“Step-by-step, the walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison,” she said.

 

The minister for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, Mohammad Khalid Hanafi, justified the ban, saying women were failing to wear hijabs properly.

“We must take action from today. We must prevent the non-observance of hijab,” he said during a visit to Bamyan.

Ministry spokesman Akef Muhajir told the AFP news agency that local religious leaders requested the temporary closure because women from outside the province were not observing the hijab dress code.

Other national parks in Afghanistan remain open to all, he said.

On Sunday, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, asked in a social media post: “Why [is] this restriction … necessary to comply with Sharia and Afghan culture?”

Women have been barred from visiting parks, fairs and gyms and must cover up in public since the Taliban returned to power two years ago.

They have also mostly been blocked from working for UN agencies or NGOs. Thousands have been sacked from government jobs or paid to stay at home.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES
Rights groups condemn Taliban’s new curbs on women’s education, movement
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