Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday recommended holding Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken in contempt of Congress for failing to testify in their investigation of the chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan, in what Democrats charged was a political stunt ahead of the election.
The committee’s party-line vote came just days before the House was set to disband for the campaign trail and as Mr. Blinken was in New York, participating in high-level diplomatic meetings during the United Nations General Assembly.
It is one of two expected Afghanistan-related moves in the House this week. The full chamber is also expected to vote on a resolution condemning 15 senior members of the Biden administration — including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Mr. Blinken — for their roles in the withdrawal.
Representative Michael McCaul, Republican of Texas and the committee’s chairman, said he was forced to pursue contempt charges after Mr. Blinken declined for months to commit to a September date to give testimony.
“Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought this upon himself,” Mr. McCaul said, arguing that he would have accepted any date in September that Mr. Blinken proposed. “His willful indifference has brought us to this moment.”
But Democrats said Mr. McCaul’s insistence on a September appearance was politically motivated and accused Republicans of trying to damage the Biden administration at the height of a critical campaign season.
“Why is there suddenly a rush to hold this contempt vote, when the secretary has made it very clear, time and time again, that he is willing to testify?” asked Representative Gregory W. Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the panel. “One reason: politics.”
House Republicans have stepped up their attacks on the Biden administration over the U.S. departure from Afghanistan as it becomes an issue on the campaign trail. Former President Donald J. Trump has blamed Ms. Harris for the deaths of 13 U.S. service members during the evacuation. Ms. Harris has accused Mr. Trump of trying to exploit the casualties for political gain, criticizing him for taking campaign photos and video at Arlington National Cemetery.
This month, Republicans on the panel released a 353-page report accusing the “Biden-Harris administration” of bumbling the withdrawal. It largely absolved Mr. Trump of any responsibility, though his administration reached the agreement with the Taliban committing the United States to a timeline for its departure.
Days before the report was released, Mr. McCaul issued a subpoena for Mr. Blinken’s testimony, ordering him to appear before the panel on Sept. 19. Mr. Blinken ended up being in Egypt that day. So on Sept. 18, Mr. McCaul issued a superseding subpoena, ordering Mr. Blinken to appear on Tuesday — the same day Mr. Biden was set to deliver a speech to the U.N. General Assembly.
“I believe you would agree U.S. representation at the highest levels in these engagements is essential,” Mr. Blinken wrote to Mr. McCaul in a letter dated Sunday and obtained by The New York Times. He added that he was “profoundly disappointed you have once again chosen to send me a subpoena and threaten contempt, rather than engage with me through the constitutionally mandated accommodation process.”
In a follow-up letter dated Monday and also obtained by The Times, Naz Durakoglu, the assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, said the Justice Department had concluded that Mr. Blinken could not be compelled to abandon his diplomatic duties at the United Nations to comply with the panel’s subpoena.
“As a matter of law,” she wrote, “the secretary may not be punished by civil or criminal means for failing to appear at the scheduled hearing.”
But the Republicans on the panel were not swayed by such appeals.
“Secretary Blinken is hiding at the United Nations General Assembly in New York,” said Representative Jim Baird, Republican of Indiana.
Other G.O.P. lawmakers recommended that House members take matters into their own hands.
“I recommend the use of inherent contempt,” said Representative Keith Self, Republican of Texas, referring to the House’s power to fine or imprison people who flout congressional subpoenas, without relying on the Justice Department to bring charges. While the House has not invoked inherent contempt in almost a century, House Republicans tried and failed to impose a $10,000-per-day fine on Attorney General Merrick B. Garland this summer.
Four countries on Wednesday accused the Taliban of “gross and systematic” violations of the U.N. treaty on women’s rights in Afghanistan, saying they would take the group to the world’s highest court because of its harsh, widely criticized restrictions on women.
The plan was described by foreign ministers from Germany, Australia, Canada and the Netherlands at the United Nations in New York, where the General Assembly was meeting on Wednesday. The ministers said they intended to take the Taliban to the International Court of Justice, the top U.N. court.
The treaty, regarded as an international bill of rights for women, was signed in 1979 and includes most of the world’s nations, including Afghanistan, which joined in 2003. (The United States is one of the few countries that has not ratified it.)
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has systematically rolled back many of the rights that women won during the 20-year U.S. occupation. Last month, the Taliban released a 114-page manifesto codifying its restrictions on women, which include barring them from secondary schools or universities, working for aid organizations and traveling any significant distance without a male relative. Human rights monitors say Afghanistan is the most restrictive country in the world for women, and the only country in the world where girls are barred from education beyond the sixth grade.
Taliban authorities have dismissed criticism of the restrictions and defended its policies, saying they are grounded in the Islamic teachings that govern the country.
At the United Nations on Wednday, the four foreign ministers condemned what they called “the gross and systematic human rights violations and abuses in Afghanistan, particularly the gender-based discrimination of women and girls.”
They said “we have repeatedly urged Afghanistan and the Taliban” to comply with international law and to lift all restrictions on the rights of women and girls, including on their right to education. “However, the situation has not improved; to the contrary, it continues to worsen.”
If the case is heard, it would be the first time the U.N.’s top court considered the alleged violation of the treaty, which forbids all forms of discrimination against women.
“This is momentous; it will give Afghan women a new important platform before world opinion and make them protagonists in their struggle,” said Rangita de Silva de Alwis, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and an adviser to Afghan women activists.
The court, based in The Hague, was established by the founding charter of the United Nations in 1945 to settle disputes between member states. The court typically has a panel of 15 judges, elected by the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council.
Its decisions are legally binding with no possibility of appeal, but the body has few means of enforcing them, and the Taliban could ignore the process.
The formal complaint against the Taliban cannot be filed immediately. The court’s rules require a formal notification that there is a dispute, followed by a six-month period in which the parties are to try to settle their dispute.
But Afghan women in Europe and North America said they were thrilled the process had been set in motion. Many have joined a Coalition for Justice, which includes more than 100 expat Afghan women who have become activists for those in Afghanistan.
“Today’s action was a great move and we are very grateful to the countries who listened to the women,” said Ghizal Haress, a lawyer who was the official ombudsperson dealing with government corruption before she fled Kabul in 2021. Ms Haress was among the women whose activism led the four governments to bring a case against the Taliban.
The activists described lobbying European lawmakers, organizing conferences and holding demonstrations.
“We knew what was coming as soon as the Taliban arrived,” said Ms. Haress, now a scholar at York University in Toronto. “But we are now making sure that the many women are not forgotten who live under a system of violence and gender apartheid.”
Allied Countries Accuse Taliban of ‘Gross’ Violations of Women’s Rights
Andrey Rudenko, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, announced that removing the Taliban from Russia’s list of terrorist groups “will not be a quick process.” He explained that it requires changes in Russian law.
In an interview with the Russian state news agency RIA Novosti, Rudenko emphasized that this process is slow due to the necessary legal amendments in Russia.
Despite this, he added that Russia, like some other countries, is ready to develop cooperation with the Taliban.
However, Rudenko pointed out that such cooperation cannot happen until the Taliban is removed from the terrorist list.
In the interview, published on Thursday, Rudenko acknowledged that the Taliban holds power in Afghanistan and is a reality that must be recognized.
In June 2023, Russia’s special envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, said the proposal to remove the Taliban from the terrorist list had been submitted to President Vladimir Putin for a final decision.
The potential removal of the Taliban from Russia’s terrorist list is under consideration but remains a complex process. Russia is consulting with its regional partners to determine how best to engage with the Taliban, recognizing their control in Afghanistan.
Russia: Removing Taliban from banned groups list will be a slow process
The chairman of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, has named 15 senior U.S. officials responsible for the country’s “disastrous” withdrawal from Afghanistan.
McCaul’s list includes President Biden, Vice President Harris, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Deputy Advisor Jonathan Finer, and other top officials, holding them responsible for the Afghanistan withdrawal.
McCaul urged Congress to hold these officials accountable, emphasizing that if the Biden administration refuses to do so, Congress must step in and take action.
McCaul criticized the Biden administration on Wednesday for promoting those involved in the “disastrous” Afghanistan withdrawal, accusing it of celebrating the deadly exit instead of admitting its mistakes and holding officials accountable.
He described the decision to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which led to the fall of the country, as “the worst foreign policy decision in U.S. history.”
McCaul accused the Biden administration of ignoring several critical factors, including the Taliban’s violation of the Doha Agreement, opposition from military commanders and intelligence agencies, and disapproval from NATO allies.
According to McCaul, after Biden’s decision, the Taliban rapidly took control of Afghanistan provinces, leading to the eventual collapse of the government.
The U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee released a two-year investigative report, holding these 15 officials accountable for the Afghanistan withdrawal disaster.
McCaul reiterated that Biden’s decision was made for political reasons without proper consultation, leading to chaotic execution and failure to evacuate civilians properly.
McCaul names 15 senior US officials responsible for ‘Disastrous’ Afghanistan withdrawal
According to Fitrat, human rights are ensured in the country, and there is no gender discrimination.
The Islamic Emirate, in response to the joint statement of four European countries regarding human rights violations in Afghanistan, said that the rights of all citizens of the country are ensured.
Hamdullah Fitrat, Deputy Spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, said that such remarks by Western countries against the Islamic Emirate are “strange and accusatory” at best.
According to Fitrat, human rights are ensured in the country, and there is no gender discrimination.
Hamdullah Fitrat added: “Accusing the Islamic Emirate of human rights violations and gender discrimination by some countries and entities is baseless. Human rights in Afghanistan are ensured, and no one is treated with discrimination.”
The German Foreign Office also said that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock highlighted the protection of the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan. Baerbock also expressed concern over what she described as human rights violations in Afghanistan and stressed the need to bring this issue to the Hague court.
Annalena Baerbock added: “We have to engage on the political level. We have been trying to do so for more than two years now. And the four countries that launched this initiative, one that is supported by so many other countries here, are also making clear in the statement that further steps could follow. We know, and we are also thankful for this debate, that not every country around the table is pledging to follow each and every step that is coming, leading ultimately to international courts.”
Meanwhile, according to the Associated Press, more than 20 countries worldwide have supported Germany’s initiative to refer this issue to the Hague court.
The Australian Foreign Ministry said: “We, the above-mentioned States, call upon Afghanistan and the Taliban de facto authorities to immediately cease its violations of the human rights of women and girls and to answer to the request for dialogue to address the concerns of the International Community on this matter.”
“The joint statement of the supporting countries and members of the convention on human rights and women can only be effective if these entities, in collaboration with major powers, engage in genuine dialogue that is effective in lifting restrictions,” Lamia Shirzai, a women’s rights activist, told TOLOnews.
“We can protect ourselves from all criticism by doing three things that are in the interest of the Afghan people: reopening schools, reopening universities, and providing job opportunities for women. This would permanently save Afghanistan from these criticisms,” said Salim Paigir, a political analyst.
Earlier, the Islamic Emirate also highlighted that women’s rights in Afghanistan are ensured within the framework of Islamic Sharia.
Islamic Emirate Responds to European Accusations on Human Rights Violations
The Deputy Minister emphasized that global aid is reaching those in need within Afghanistan and asserted that such aid should continue.
Abdul Latif Nazari, the Professional Deputy Minister of Economy, has once again denied any interference or misuse of U.S. aid to Afghanistan, stating that the Islamic Emirate has no involvement in these aid efforts.
The Deputy Minister emphasized that global aid is reaching those in need within Afghanistan and asserted that such aid should continue.
Abdul Latif Nazari stated, “The Islamic Emirate has no involvement in these aid efforts. These aids are delivered to the needy under supervision and transparency. Our request is for an increase in aid to the people of Afghanistan.”
Previously, reports surfaced that a group of Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives is introducing new legislation calling for a halt to aid to Afghanistan due to concerns about potential misuse of U.S. financial assistance by the Islamic Emirate.
Abdul Nasir Reshtia, an expert on economic issues regarding aid to Afghanistan, said, “It is expected that humanitarian aid will once again be used as a pretext, alleging that it is accessible to the Afghan government, leading to another violation of human rights in Afghanistan.”
Another economic expert, Abdul Ghafar Nizami, commented, “In the short term, aid is beneficial to Afghanistan; however, it does not prove beneficial in the long run.”
In the past three years, the international community has provided over $7 billion in aid to Afghanistan, with the United States being the largest donor. According to the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the United States has contributed approximately $2.9 billion in aid to Afghanistan. However, allegations of misuse and interference in this aid by the Islamic Emirate have been a frequent subject of criticism by some U.S. officials.
In the current year, the United States has also allocated $280 million to the World Food Program for aid to the people of Afghanistan.
Islamic Emirate Denies U.S. Aid Interference, Urges Continued Assistance
As the Taliban starts enforcing draconian new rules on women in Afghanistan, it has also begun to target a group that didn’t see tight restrictions on them coming: Afghan men.
Women have faced an onslaught of increasingly severe limits on their personal freedom and rules about their dress since the Taliban seized power three years ago. But men in urban areas could, for the most part, carry on freely.
The past four weeks, however, have brought significant changes for them, too. New laws promulgated in late August mandate that men wear a fist-long beard, bar them from imitating non-Muslims in appearance or behavior, widely interpreted as a prohibition against jeans, and ban haircuts that are against Islamic law, which essentially means short or Western styles. Men are now also prohibited from looking at women other than their wives or relatives.
As a result, more are growing beards, carrying prayer rugs and leaving their jeans at home.
These first serious restrictions on men have come as a surprise to many in Afghanistan, according to a range of Afghans, including Taliban opponents, wavering supporters and even members of the Taliban regime, who spoke in phone interviews over the past two weeks. In a society where a man’s voice is often perceived as far more powerful than a woman’s, some men now wonder whether they should have spoken up sooner to defend the freedoms of their wives and daughters.
“If men had raised their voices, we might also be in a different situation now,” said a male resident of the capital, Kabul, who like others interviewed for this story spoke on the condition of anonymity or that only their first names be used due to fears of drawing unwanted scrutiny from the regime. “Now, everyone is growing a beard because we don’t want to be questioned, humiliated,” he said.
The Taliban’s new rules governing men pale in comparison with restrictions the government has placed on girls and women, who remain banned from going to school above sixth grade, barred from universities and were recently prohibited from raising their voices in public, among many other rules.
But newly empowered religious morality officers, known for their white robes, have been knocking over the past four weeks on the doors of men in some parts of Kabul who haven’t recently attended mosque, according to residents. Government employees said they fear they’ll be let go for having failed to grow their beards, and some barbers now refuse to trim them. Increasingly, male taxi drivers are being stopped for violating gender segregation rules, by having unaccompanied female riders in their cars, or for playing music.
The new laws give the morality police authority to detain suspects for up to three days. In severe cases, such as repeated failure to pray in the mosque, suspects can be handed over to courts for trial and sentencing based on their interpretation of Islamic sharia law. Violations of the new rules are expected to be punished by fines or prison terms. But people found guilty of some infractions, for example adultery, could be sentenced to flogging or death by stoning.
Amir, a resident who lives in eastern Afghanistan, said he supported the Taliban up until the latest restrictions. But he now feels bullied into submission by their morality police.
“We all are practicing Muslims and know what is mandatory or not. But it’s unacceptable to use force on us,” he said. He added, “Even people who have supported the Taliban are now trying to leave the country.”
Most men interviewed for this story live in Kabul, the country’s most cosmopolitan city, or other urban areas. Residents of more conservative and traditional parts of Afghanistan said they have noticed barely any changes. A male resident of rural Helmand, in southern Afghanistan, said no one in his village has concerns and such rules have long been customary there. “No morality police has showed up here so far. They focus on the cities,” he said.
The new restrictions appear to reflect a broader shift in the balance of power inside the Taliban, with the most conservative elements either gaining influence or seeking to assert themselves more aggressively in urban areas, according to Western officials and Afghan critics of the Taliban.
The Ministry of Vice and Virtue, which directs the morality police, could not be reached for comment. A former senior official with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue denied that the ministry is increasingly turning into a shadow law enforcement agency, saying its primary responsibility remains preaching. He spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is no longer authorized to respond to journalists.
The new restrictions on women include a ban on them raising their voices, reciting the Quran in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. Women must also cover the lower half of their faces in addition to donning a head covering they were already expected to wear.
The crackdown by morality police in urban areas, where some religious rules had been rarely enforced, has heightened anxiety among women. For men, it has come as a shock.
A 36-year old male driver in Kabul said the new restrictions feel “enormous” and pose a growing hardship for his work. His revenue has declined by 70 percent since late August, he said, partly because the Taliban has begun enforcing a rule that bans women from traveling alone in taxis.
Even in some government offices, a new sense of dread has set in. A former Taliban supporter recalled how a friend, who still works for the regime, recently had his salary withheld because his beard wasn’t sufficiently long.
“We are hearing that some of the civil servants, whose beards were shorter than the required length, were barred from entering their departments,” said a government employee, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to journalists.
For the past three years, Afghan women often felt alone in their anguish. Some grew exasperated by their husbands’ silence or growing support for the Taliban, which tried to win public favor by building roads and repairing tunnels.
Several women said they hope their protests will soon be joined by Afghan men. “Men were silent from Day 1, which gave the Taliban the courage to keep imposing such rules,” said a 24-year-old female resident in Kabul. “Now, the Taliban is finally losing men’s support,” she said.
Others are skeptical whether criticism of the rules can make a difference.
In interviews, several Kabul residents said they have begun in recent weeks to look more seriously into leaving the country.
“But if more young people flee this country,” said a male Kabul resident, “there won’t be any hope at all.”
Haq Nawaz Khan and Lutfullah Qasimyar contributed to this report.
As Taliban starts restricting men, too, some regret not speaking up sooner
On 10 May 2024, Haroon Nafas was in his family’s guesthouse in Baghlan, north Afghanistan, spending time with friends who had come to stay. It had been raining lightly all through the afternoon, but at about 3pm the group heard a loud crashing noise.
“We immediately went outside to see what was causing the sound,” says Nafas. “Initially, we were confused, thinking it might have been a plane. But then we realised, no, it’s a flood.”
Nafas rushed home to his own house, which fortunately was located up on a hillside, and started gathering his family. Meanwhile, several town members sought shelter atop the local mosque, including Nafas’s brothers, who used a mulberry tree to climb on to the roof and reach safety.
Others were not so lucky. “The flood was very severe, maybe up to 30 metres high,” says Nafas. “People were even dragged in from the roofs of certain buildings. The damage from the waters spread several kilometres. Some households lost up to 11 family members.”
Over two days, at least 315 people were killed in Baghlan and more than 2,000 homes destroyed. About 1,600 people were injured, and hundreds more were missing. Flash floods also wreaked havoc in other provinces across Afghanistan, with at least 50 people killed in Ghor.
Afghanistan has always been prone to natural disasters. Among low-income nations, it ranked second in the number of deaths caused by them between 1980 and 2015, according to one report. However, the frequency and extremity of disasters such as flash flooding is on the rise, and climate breakdown is not solely responsible for these changes. The country’s history of armed conflict has exacerbated the situation severely.
Dr Najibullah Sadid, an environmental researcher and water resources expert based in Germany, says it is crucial that warring parties are held more accountable as toxic artillery often gets left behind and damages the environment. Explosives can damage ecosystems, disrupt biodiversity and weaken soil structure, and can damage groundwater resources.
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According to a report by the Progressive magazine, the US dropped more than 85,000 bombs on Afghanistan between 2001 and 2021. In spots where massive ordnance air blast bombs, nicknamed “the mother of all bombs”, were dropped, such as Nangarhar province, scientists have found that plant yields halved due to the spread of toxins. Such toxins can also be carried to other regions by the wind or in water.
Mine contamination is another problem. As of 2021, only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces had ever (temporarily) been declared mine-free. The remaining 33 provinces still have explosive ordnance scattered across them. Despite this, funding for the country’s mine action sector has been declining, from $113m (£86m) in 2011 to $32m in 2020. The Taliban takeover in August 2021 has threatened these streams further, as many donors remain reluctant to engage with the new government, despite improved operating conditions and access to previously unreachable locations. According to the United Nations Mine Action Service about 45,000 Afghan civilians have been killed or wounded by landmines since 1989.
Water resources expert Dr Najibullah Sadid says mines disrupt soil structure. Photograph: Najibullah Sadid
Sadid says the mines have a direct connection to the recent flash floods: “Landmines [and] de-mining activity disrupt soil structure. Disrupt this, and you are basically exposing the soil to erosion. The debris flow in Baghlan, for example, can be linked to war because the floods originated from a valley which is completely dry.”
Conflict-caused deforestation also worsens flash floods. In 1970, Afghanistan had 2.8m hectares (6.9m acres) of forest, covering 4.5% of the country. By 2016, this had shrunk to about 1.5%. In Nuristan, a province in eastern Afghanistan, forest cover had reduced by 53% in that time.
“Vegetation retains a lot of rainwater,” says Sadid. “When there is no forest, the land becomes exposed to landslides, and the runoff increases. That’s why we now see very extreme flash floods occurring in some parts of Afghanistan.”
For Sayed Abdul Baset, a disaster risk reduction expert and Herat resident, the issue hits close to home. The former adviser to the Afghan government says there is still an opportunity to unite and mobilise despite the problems caused by climate breakdown.
“These natural disasters are related to the activities of the land,” he says. “They show how unsafe our homes are, how weak our coping capacity and early warning systems are. We don’t have water pipes. The topography of the soil is not good. There is no flood zoning. People live in floodplains. It is a very painful picture. It is no less than a war.”
Sohila Akbari, who is based in Herat, has been leading humanitarian efforts as part of a 12-woman team for more than a decade.
Humanitarian worker Sohila Akbari was herself caught up in the earthquakes that hit Herat in 2023. Photograph: Sohila Akbari
With financial contributions collected from the Afghan diaspora and donors abroad, her grassroots organisation Committee Akbari regularly distributes emergency aid such as food, clothes and tents to the city’s poorest and disaster-struck.
“I first started interacting with those struggling through my work as a teacher,” says Akbari. “Slowly, I started to develop an interest in finding other ways to help. I’ve since connected with Afghans all over to try to take the work further.”
Akbari was herself a victim of the devastating series of earthquakes that hit Herat in October 2023, killing more than 2,000 people. “It was a very horrible day. We hadn’t experienced an earthquake in years. It took us all by surprise.”
She recalls hearing a horrible noise that resembled explosions. “You couldn’t even stand. The ground would go out from under you. Our house was on the third floor so it was especially bad. I remember telling the children to run, just run. Don’t worry about me. They ran. I was in the stairwell when the ceiling caved. I thought I was finished.”
They spent the next few days seeking shelter in a local school. After two days, Akbari resumed her distribution efforts to those who had been most severely affected.
“We are in the city. What else can we do if we don’t help? We will do our best. What little we can do, we will do it,” she says.
It is through locals such as Akbari, who are already familiar with the people affected, that aid can have the most successful outcome, says the longtime climate journalist Laurie Goering.
“This is the giant question in climate finance right now. How do you actually move such big amounts of money from governments and organisations to those women in Afghanistan? Taking advantage of local systems and actors, and finding intermediary groups to get more of that money to where it’s needed is really important,” Goering says.
Afghanistan is one of the countries most vulnerable in the climate crisis, but it is excluded from COP talks. Photograph: Najib Nazari
As for how much compensation warring states owe for the destruction caused in Afghanistan, Goering refers to the United Nations Development Programme’s loss and damage fund as a good place to start. This is a new fund aimed at helping impoverished nations cope with the damage caused by climate-induced natural disasters. Support will be offered in the form of grants.
“The fund is designed to help communities and countries recover from things they couldn’t have adapted to,” says Goering. “So that money would be really useful in places like Afghanistan.”
Since their rise to power in August 2021, the Taliban have remained excluded from the global stage. For Goering, this poses an extra challenge: “It’s hard to get funds if you’re excluded from international systems. There’s a lot of thinking at the moment about how to move money to very vulnerable places without going through the government.”
Despite Afghanistan being one of the countries most vulnerable to global heating, due to its arid climate, mountainous topography and reliance on agriculture, it was once again excluded from the Cop28 climate talks last year, something Goering says is problematic.
“Afghanistan doesn’t have high emissions,” she says. “This is something that’s happening globally, that everybody must work on together. Otherwise, we won’t solve the problem.”
It is a sentiment shared by Rahmani, who believes support from international institutions and existing data could go a long way: “We need to create a roadmap for each region of Afghanistan. Also, 60% of Afghans are young. They can be taught. With a very small budget, they can be provided with employment, education and training in the climate field.”
However, to truly muster the potential of younger generations, Rahmani admits better climate awareness is a crucial first step: “People think that this is God’s will, that because of our sins, these disasters happen to us and that we can’t do anything about it. Such beliefs and social behaviours have a lot of impact.”
Rahmani also hopes to see more remediation from warring parties, as well as high-emitting nations.
“These countries have a responsibility,” he says. “This is happening because of them. Places like the United States, England, Brazil and China – they keep their industry alive with fossil fuels and adapt themselves and raise their resilience. But for Afghanistan, which is currently very limited in terms of global relations, those conditions are completely closed.”
In March, the UN security council voted to extend its mission in Afghanistan for another year, but this is focused mostly on the humanitarian crisis rather than climate impacts.
There is also an ongoing parliamentary inquiry in the Netherlands on the impact of the Dutch and Nato’s 20-year intervention in Afghanistan. Similar initiatives by other countries embedded in the Nato campaign could accelerate reparations and aid.
“We had a very large climate project a while ago, backed by millions of dollars. But unfortunately, all the work is suspended. We need funds. These are very serious issues. It is very necessary for the people of the world to be united so that we can solve these problems.”
Since the Taliban takeover in 2021, large-scale conflict has reduced significantly. According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, no new conflict displacement was recorded in 2023. However, by the end of that year, there were still 1.5 million people internally displaced as a result of natural disasters.
For Baghlan resident Nafas, the most pressing need for those affected is clean water. He hopes the humanitarian response offers a solution before the situation on the ground worsens.
“The tap systems have all been damaged,” he says. “All the canals are covered with mud. There is no drinking water, no water for ablution, for people’s livestock, for agriculture. Incomes have also been suspended. People are living in makeshift tents. It’s chaos. It is hot now but soon the cold season will come.”
Interviewees’ names have been changed to protect their identities.
War, deforestation, flooding: in Afghanistan they are all linked
In its latest assault on basic freedoms, Afghanistan has banned women and girls from speaking in public. It marks a new low in the Taliban-led government’s enforced gender apartheid.
Promises that girls and women would be allowed to study and work were broken shortly after the Taliban returned to power. The group banned girls from going to school beyond sixth grade and outlawed them from pursuing higher education at university. It even prohibited them from taking a stroll in the park or going to the gym, and from nearly all professions that could earn them a living and a semblance of independence and dignity.
And yet even as Afghan women are kept prisoner in their homes and denied basic rights, neither the Islamic nations in the region nor the United States have taken an active interest in compelling the group to reverse its misogynistic policies.
The new rules were announced in the middle of the presidential campaign in the United States, but both candidates kept mum on the issue of women’s rights, even though each of their respective governments knowingly left Afghan women to a fate that was hardly unexpected.
When Kamala Harris and Donald Trump faced off in a debate last week, Afghanistan was raised only in the context of the domestic ramifications of American withdrawal. No mention was made of what happened to Afghans left behind. Neither candidate said a word about how the U.S. exited without securing any guarantees from the Taliban on the future of women and their rights.
The Taliban, firmly in control, brushed off all of its atrocities on Afghan women and violation of their very basic rights as “Afghan values’’ in a conversation with Foreign Policy. Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said the group was open for engagement with the West, but on economic issues only.
“They can invest in minerals,’’ he told FP. “China, Russia, all have business ties with us, the West can also do that. It is good for them and good for us.’’
“Women’s rights and those things are up to us, and we will determine them according to Afghan values and traditions,’’ he added, as if speaking and reading were matters of Afghan sovereignty and not basic human rights.
Mahbouba Seraj, an Afghan women’s rights activist who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year, blamed both the Trump and Biden administrations for the circumstances the Afghan girls and women find themselves in.
“When they were discussing the agreement in Doha, we were not even given the visa to come to Qatar because we would have asked questions, we would have confronted the Taliban, but that could have scuttled the deal and the Trump administration didn’t want that,’’ she told FP over the phone.
“Biden may not have had enough room to change the deal, but that was not the reason he stuck with it,’’ she said. The Biden administration “wanted to get out.’’
An armed man in a tactical vest walks on a platform above a square filled with cars.
The key tenet of the U.S. policy on Afghanistan has been security and containing the threat that terrorist groups based there can pose to Western countries. The Doha agreement between the U.S. and the Taliban, which led to the U.S. exit, called on the Taliban “to prevent the use of Afghan soil by any international terrorist groups or individuals against the security of the United States and its allies.’’
But even the word “women’’ is missing from it. A post-withdrawal concern has been that a deteriorating humanitarian situation could exacerbate the refugee crisis, particularly in Europe.
In order to address these concerns, and heed calls by humanitarian actors, the U.S. agreed to ease some sanctions and infuse Afghanistan with billions in cash. That helped Afghans, but it also kept the Taliban afloat and emboldened it to carry on as it pleased.
“Since August 2021, the U.N. has purchased, transported, and transferred at least $2.9 billion to Afghanistan using international donor contributions,’’ according to a report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) in January. It added that the U.S. is the largest donor, with $2.6 billion of that sum contributed by the American taxpayer.
While throwing money at the problem has somewhat mitigated a humanitarian crisis, it has also kept the Taliban in power and allowed it to maintain a support base. The report said that the Taliban has accumulated, “a large supply of U.S. dollars, through the conversion process of dollars for afghanis.’’
Some Afghan analysts argued that stopping the cash flow will weaken the Taliban, reduce its acceptability, and ideally encourage an anti-Taliban uprising. Or, at the very least, force them to make some concessions.
22-year-old Miryam, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, pleaded that the West, and especially the U.S., “should stop sending money to the Taliban.’’ Her education was cut short when the Taliban took over in 2021, she can’t wear what she wants, or do anything professionally, or step out of the house.
“Don’t recognize the Taliban,’’ she said from Kabul in her message to the international community, “put pressure on them to at least give women the right to work and study.’’
Davood Moradian, founder and the director-general of the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies (AISS) now based in London, argued in favor of slashing the aid. “America is the main source of Afghan currency,’’ he told FP. “The moment the U.S. stopped funding, the Taliban will face a serious challenge,’’ to its rule, he added.
Others said if the Taliban didn’t break under 20 years of American presence, they wouldn’t abandon their hardcore ideology now, due to a cash crunch. Seraj, the women’s rights activist, advocated a diametrically different approach and said that the West should instead open the floodgates of developmental aid in a way that upward mobility emboldens the Afghan people to rebel against Taliban’s excesses and fight for women’s rights.
“You can’t even use the word women with them,’’ she said. “You have to come up with things like more investments and business deals and let that create the right conditions.’’
Thus far, the U.S. has threatened the Taliban with a global boycott if it doesn’t grant women their rights. But efforts ostracize the group from the international community are a farce since China, Russia, Pakistan, Qatar and several others continue to engage the group for economic and security reasons.
The truth is there hasn’t been an active U.S. policy to try and bring about a change or help the women of Afghanistan since the U.S. retreated. The policy has been outsourced to the U.N., which is engaging the group, often on the terms set by the Taliban. For instance, in July the U.N. organized Doha III, a dialogue platform to engage the Taliban and various stakeholders on the future of Afghanistan. But to appease the Taliban and make sure they attended, not a single women’s rights activist was invited.
One idea, way short of full recognition, could be to bring together a coalition of Islamic nations to challenge the Taliban’s understanding of Shariah and compel the group to let women and girls study and work, just as they can in other Islamic countries.
In April, the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) called on the Taliban’s deputy chief minister Abdul Kabir to end the ban on education and employment for women and girls. Last year, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that preventing education for girls is “inhumane and un-Islamic.” Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, a prominent political advisor in the United Arab Emirates, told FP that an Emirati delegation visited Kabul to discuss women’s rights. “There are so many trends in Islam, some more moderate, others more extreme. The Taliban, they are following a very backward ideology,” he said.
But Afghan women’s rights activists say that the condemnations from fellow Islamic countries appear to be more perfunctory and unserious. It could carry weight if it was a cohesive regional policy pushed by the U.S. as one of the pillars of its Afghanistan strategy. The Taliban, after all, is carrying out its oppression in the name of Islam.
Shaheen, the Taliban spokesperson, seemed to make some room for concessions when he told FP that the decision on education and employment for girls and women was pending, and subject to a report by an Afghan “committee.”
As for the next American president, ignoring Afghanistan would be at their own peril. Caging women in their homes and denying them basic rights represents a pattern of the Taliban reneging on promises—and it’s easy to imagine that extending to foreign policy.
“They are all there, all there,’’ Seraj, the activist, said. “ISIS-KP, Al Qaeda, other terrorist groups, they are all there. They are all getting training. Don’t think nothing is happening. The American intelligence knows what’s going on.”
Anchal Vohra is a Brussels-based columnist at Foreign Policy who writes about Europe, the Middle East, and South Asia. She has covered the Middle East for the Times of London and has been a TV correspondent for Al Jazeera English and Deutsche Welle. She was previously based in Beirut and Delhi and has reported on conflict and politics from over two dozen countries.
The Taliban’s Misogyny Finally Needs a U.S. Response
The relationship between central government and political actors at the periphery has long been studied in Afghanistan in order to understand representation, legitimacy, patronage and conflict. In the years of the insurgency and since the re-establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA), the Taleban movement has remained a cohesive force in Afghanistan’s highly fragmented political landscape. However, the IEA faces challenges similar to those experienced by previous governments in how to rule, in a centralised way, a large and varied country beset by structural hurdles in terms of infrastructure and budget. This themed report focuses on northeastern Afghanistan, an area which, before August 2021, had never come under Islamic Emirate rule – the provinces of Takhar, Badakhshan and Panjshir, plus parts of Baghlan. In a new themed report, Fabrizio Foschini has been looking at the constraints and challenges that have been faced by the IEA in organising its administration there over the last three years.
A view of Ragh area, Badakhshan province. Photo by Fabrizio Foschini, 2012You can preview the report online and download it by clicking here or the download button below.
The northeast of Afghanistan constitutes a case of particular interest, given its geographical, historical and socio-political specificities. In the years between 1996 and 2001, it saw the most effective military opposition to the first Islamic Emirate. In the years after 2001, political-military networks hailing from the region maintained their importance both locally and at the central level, reaping the rewards of having helped the United States topple the first IEA. The emergence of an insurgency and its ultimate conquest of state power has removed or marginalised these elites. Elsewhere, the Emirate had years of solid shadow administration with cadre ready to take over administrative and military posts, but in the northeast, core affiliates waiting to take over were less numerous or had limited social influence.
Also complicating central rule are four decades of internal conflicts and foreign interventions, which have left scars on Afghanistan’s political landscape at the sub-national level. In the northeast, the role of local politico-military powerbrokers, based on the key elements of regional/ethnic belonging, personal connection and shared economic interests and with strong ties to the centre, was particularly evident during the Republic.
Since 2021, the IEA has had to devise strategies to expand and consolidate its rule in this region, and safeguard against possible threats to its control. In some areas, such as Panjshir, this has been pursued primarily through military occupation. Elsewhere, in most of Takhar and Badakhshan, the emphasis has been more on co-option, seeking to appease local elites in order to prevent any thought of opposition and also to tap into their influence in local communities in order to strengthen and expand the status of local IEA commanders. In doing so, Kabul initially acknowledged the relevance of locally specific human and social features: for example, wherever possible, it selected senior local officials from among its own cadre from whatever group is locally in the majority, Uzbeks or Tajiks.
Starting from late 2022, once its hold on power at the national and local levels had been consolidated, the IEA began to adopt a more hands-on approach to sub-national governance in the northeast: appointments at the provincial level became less mindful of local origins and ethnic balances of power and many prominent Taleban commanders, initially tasked with mollifying their home areas, were transferred to other provinces, while their troops – recently expanded by new recruits with no record of previous allegiance to the Emirate – have been subjected to vetting. Instances of rebellion by local IEA commanders who felt wronged have been suppressed.
This appeared to show that the IEA is wary of the risk of infiltration by hostile groups or the accumulation of unsanctioned autonomy and power by its peripheral commanders. The change in IEA strategy also pointed to the emergence of another priority – reclaiming control of mines and other economic assets from local Taleban powerbrokers and centralising the extraction of revenue.
The single most coherent IEA policy aimed at enhancing its support among locals in the northeast and creating future loyal cadres has been the expansion of the religious education system. It is also counting on government-run madrasas to counter the influence of religious groups which it opposes or mistrusts, such as Hezb ut-Tahrir and the Salafis, of particular concern to the IEA in this part of Afghanistan as a possible medium for political opposition.
Currently, the IEA seems bent on enforcing tighter control over local appointments and resources and implementing its policies more uniformly throughout northeastern Afghanistan. In doing so, it may clash with the vested interests of some of its local supporters. Its willingness and capacity to rule this region in a more centralised way without stirring opposition is still unclear.
You can preview the report online and download it by clicking here or the download button below.
Afghanistan Peace Campaign
A view of Ragh area, Badakhshan province. Photo by Fabrizio Foschini, 2012You can preview the report online and download it by clicking 