Since seizing Kabul in a coup Aug. 15, the Afghan Taliban faces a devastating shortage of cash, after the U.S. government froze some $10 billion in assets from the previous U.S.-backed government Ashraf Ghani. Days before the Taliban takeover, Ghani fled to the United Arab Emirates [UAE], fearing almost certain torture, imprisonment or death if he stayed in the Afghan capital. President Joe Biden was widely criticized for his hasty exit strategy, leaving U.S. troops to a deadly Aug. 26 terrorist attack that left 13 U.S. soldiers death from a suicide bombing. But whatever the misgivings of the U.S. exit strategy, the Taliban has real PR problems going forward government Afghanistan with it adherence to Islamic Sharia law that denies human and civil rights to women, let alone anyone who doesn’t fit the conservative Islamic model imposed on the people.
Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi echoed views of the United Nations, concerned that without the frozen U.S. assets Afghanistan will spiral into a humanitarian crisis, unable to purchase enough food and medicine for its population.. U.S. and U.N. officials worried that the Taliban’s return to strict Sharia law prevents the government from allowing basic human and civil rights standards needed for the Afghan Taliban to have any legitimate world standing. “To the American nation: You are a great and big nation and you must have enough patience and have a big heart to dare to make policies on Afghanistan based on international rules and relegation, and to end the differences and make the distance between us shorter,” Muttaqi said. Taliban wants the U.S. to release the funds without any guarantees, especially for girls and women, losing all rights under Taliban rule.
Muttaqi talks about international law but doesn’t subscribe to any of the U.N.’s conventions on human or civil rights, believing, because of religious convictions, they can deny women, girls and all other minorities of any rights at all. No one doubts the extreme poverty, food and medicine shortages in parts of Afghanistan. But Muttaqi and other Taliban officials must understand that the world doesn’t give the Taliban the right to apply their own eccentric applications of human and civil right, if they wish to gain to some international recognition for seizing power in Afghanistan. When the U.S. pulled out Aug. 31, it was after 20 years since Operation Enduring Freedom mobilized the U.S. military to avenge the death and destruction of Sept. 11, watching Osama bin Laden murder nearly 3,000 U.S. citizens. Taliban past ruler Mullah Mohammed Omar refused to help the U.S. capture Bin Laden.
Whatever the history dating back to Sept. 11, the Taliban must agree to certain basic standards of civil and human rights before the U.S. will release all or part of its frozen assets parked in U.S. banks. “America will slowly, slowly change its policy toward Afghanistan,” said Muttaqi, wishful thinking, if there’s no change in Taliban policy toward women and girls. Taliban girls are currently not allowed to return to school. Taliban’s education minister Abdul Hakim Hemat told the BBC that girls would not be able to return to secondary school until 2022. Muttaqi told the press that this showed that the Taliban was committed to extending basic rights to its people, regardless of gender. Muttaqi asked the U.S. to recognize the progress being made by the Afghanistan in addressing human and civil rights to all its citizens. U.S. officials want guarantees by the Taliban before releasing frozen assets.
Muttaqi has tried to sell the U.S. that the Taliban has turned over a new leaf when it comes to rights for women and girls. “This shows that we are committed in principle to women participation,” Muttaqi said, overstating the difference between “principle” and actual practice when it comes to allowing women and girls to attend school, and, more importantly, work outside the home in jobs traditionally done by men in Afghan society. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan under Omar, women and girls, had no rights other than those conferred on them by men. Women and girls had no right to educations or to refuse men who expected women to play a subservient role in Afghan society, largely on managing households, rearing and raising children, something done by generations of women in human history. U.S. and U.N. standards on treatment of women have higher standards than past historic standards.
Taliban officials must work more closely with the U.N.’s commission on human rights to assure that they’re in compliance with standards in order to qualify for receiving frozen U.S. assets. “We have made progress in administration and politics . . . in interaction with the nation and the world. “With each passing day we will gain more experience and make more progress,” Muttaqi said, hoping to convince the U.S. Treasury Department to release frozen assets. Taliban promises over the course of three years, under the former Trump administration, showed nothing but broken promises when it came to meeting human and civil rights. Secretary of State Tony Blinken has a State Department team in place to assure Taliban compliance with basic human and civil rights. Progress must be more than Muttaqi saying the Taliban is committed in “principle” to assuring human, civil and women’s rights.
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