"Going forward the strategic interests of Canada and our allies in Afghanistan have diminished."
"As
a result, a reduced programming footprint ... is proposed, focused on
education health and gender equality in addition to humanitarian
assistance."
Canada's foreign affairs briefing note to Ahmed Hussen, minister for international development
Newly recruited personnel joining the Taliban
security forces demonstrate their skills during their graduation
ceremony in the western city of Herat
Internal
Canadian government documents give some insight to Canada's ongoing
financial support to Afghanistan in humanitarian aid, meant to be
delivered to suffering Afghans living a life of privation under Taliban
rule, in the hopes that none of that financial aid goes to the
government itself. The "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan" under Taliban
administration, has no diplomatic recognition from any nation. It has no
international legitimacy. And its toxic rule has been a life-stopper
for Afghan girls and women.
Global
Affairs Canada issued a briefing note that while recognizing Canada's
diminished focus on the country at a time when new crises are erupting
elsewhere in the world, that ongoing funding in areas such as health,
education and women's rights be maintained; given the odium in which the
fundamentalist Islamist regime is held, there is no popularity among
Canadian taxpayers to expend charitable funding to a country that its
extremist rulers would be swift to appropriate.
"This could generate negative media interest",
the document warns, should it be publicized, recommending a "reactive"
communications strategy. Since the Taliban took over in 2021 and foreign
missions were withdrawn along with a coalition led by the United States
of military forces, the Taliban expelled international humanitarian
groups leading to an exacerbated condition of non-foreign-interference
in the affairs of the country bringing issues of education, health, food
scarcity to a head.
Taliban
security personnel holding rocket-propelled grenade ride motorbikes as
they celebrate the third anniversary of Taliban takeover of Afghanistan
in Khost on August 14, 2024.Photo by AFP via Getty Images/File
Most
countries strive to avoid direct government-to-government contact with
the Taliban that risks legitimizing a regime known for its human rights
abuses. Afghanistan is a country whose people face severe humanitarian
pressures; the United Nations estimating that over 12 million Afghans
suffer "acute food insecurity". Canada's government while refusing to
recognize the Taliban as a legitimate government, has provided $367
million in assistance in the past three years.
"Canada has continued to provide development assistance to the people of Afghanistan",
a Global Affairs spokesman affirmed to an investigating journalist.
Over the years of Canada's active involvement in Afghanistan the total
that the government of Canada provided was over $4 billion in aid. Under
the Taliban, girls are barred from attending school past Grade 6. Women
cannot participate in most areas of the economy, and harsh rules have
been imposed on their dress and their participation in social life.
"A
country like Canada can't do everything everywhere all the time. But if
there's ever a place where values, historical obligation and interests
kind of align, it's Afghanistan."
"There
is no place in recent history where not just Canadian Forces but also
civilians and diplomats were as present for as long as they were in
Afghanistan."
Martin Fischer, spokesman, World Vision Canada
There
is nothing quite like the passion of humanitarian groups urging
governments to fund their missions abroad. It is their reason for
existence. For employing locally engaged people. For priding themselves
on supporting those for whom few options remain other than to dream of a
future without coercion, insecurity and starvation. That, in the
process of delivering their humanitarian aid they relieve dictators of
their own responsibility to provide for their populations is irrelevant;
as is the fact that indirectly they are supporting those dictatorships.
Since
Canada closed its embassy, cutting off direct assistance to the Afghan
government since the Taliban takeover it has continued to provide
critical support "without compromising our values",
Global Affairs insists. Pointing out that 40,000 Afghans were brought
to Canada, ostensibly saving them from Taliban threats, but leaving the
question of adequate security measures being in place through the
process. That an incident of recent street protests where extremists
gathered to condemn Israel for its war in Gaza following the terrorist
assault on Israel, flags of Hamas, Hezbollah and the Taliban have been
seen. 'Death to Canada' has been heard, along with 'Death to Israel'.
The
government of Canada insists that much of its funding aid has been
directed to the Afghanistan Resilience Trust Fund, a World Bank project;
funding that the briefing note recommended be reduced. Funding directed
elsewhere in aid to Afghanistan is meant to focus on health, education,
female rights and empowerment and humanitarian aid, the Global Affairs
briefing note adds.
A Taliban fighter stands guard as women wait to
receive food rations distributed by a humanitarian aid group in Kabul
last month.
"Should
the reduction in the department's international assistance to
Afghanistan be publicized, this could generate negative media interest."
"[However], the proposed approach is not expected to garner media and/or public attention."
"The department recommends a reactive communications approach."
"This
decision does not mean there is discrimination here, or that the
activities of the United Nations are blocked. On the contrary, we are
committed to all the rights of all our countrymen, taking into account
their religious and cultural interests."
"Considering
the emergency situation in Afghanistan, it is necessary for the member
countries of the United Nations to resolve the problem of frozen Afghan
assets, banking, travel bans and other restrictions as soon as possible
so that Afghanistan can progress in economic, political and security
areas."
"Afghans have the capacity to stand on their own feet."
Zabihullah Mujahid, spokesman, Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
UN officials met with the Taliban's higher education minister, at left,
in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Jan. 7, 2023 to discuss the country's ban on
women attending universities. The organization said Tuesday that the
Taliban has since barred its female staffers from working. (Taliban Higher Education Ministry/The Associated Press)
A
week ago the ruling Taliban in Afghanistan further restricted women's
human rights. Initially, when the Taliban took Kabul, they assured the
world looking on, that they had every intention of respecting the human
rights of women and girls. Presenting themselves as moderately
reasonable, in the face of the reputation the first Taliban rule which
imposed draconian laws against women seen in public without a male
escort. Women were strictly forbidden from being seen without the
all-enveloping burqas.
Women
were forbidden to hold jobs outside their homes; paid work not for
women, even widows without any means of income that could sustain the
necessities of life. Child 'brides', a customary Islamist process of
engineering girls into early motherhood, was rife. Education for girls
was prohibited. Women in ill health could not be examined by male
physicians. Women-only hospitals staffed by female physicians and
surgeons who during surgeries were forced to wear that same burqa.
Afghan women chant slogans during a protest against the Taliban's ban on
university education for women in Kabul, Afghanistan's capital. The country's Taliban-run administration ordered
all local and foreign non-governmental organizations to suspend
employing women. (The Associated Press)
While
the Taliban was busy assuring the global community that it had matured
its outlook and was willing to recognize the human rights of women and
girls, those same women and girls knew differently. The Taliban's
reassurance to the outside world was meant to forestall international
involvement in the country's internal affairs as much as to convince
global investment to continue its presence in Afghanistan. It took
little time before the frail effort to convince the world that the
Taliban was anything but the Taliban prevailed.
First
to feel the sharp cut of the Islamist sabre were the former
government's civil servants, all those who cooperated with the foreign
intervenors representing the international community which had ousted
the Taliban in search of Osama bin Laden. People were hunted down as
traitors to fundamentalist Islam and to Afghanistan. Those that were
able to flee to Turkey and Pakistan did, while the former NATO- and
U.S.-led coalition members airlifted Afghans known to have assisted them
as translators and other workers to safety abroad.
Afghan
women are protesting against the Taliban’s decision to ban them from
the country’s universities. Despite the growing global backlash over the
regime's attack on women's rights, the Taliban is refusing to back
down.
Those
Afghans who live under Taliban rule suffer privation and hunger and
fear. International NGOs installed themselves to offer humanitarian aid.
And then came the pronouncement that Afghan women could no longer work
for NGOs. Women attending universities were denied the privilege of
returning to classes, joining younger women for whom high school
education had previously been forbidden. Now, a week ago the Taliban
announced that female Afghan staffers employed with the UN may no longer
report for work.
In
response the United Nations protested the decision, as unlawful and a
violation of women's rights. Women, the UN stressed, have been essential
for delivering life-saving assistance to millions of Afghans. The UN
took the step of instructing its national staff both men and women to
remain at home. The response to which was a denial by Taliban
authorities that they were responsible for Afghanistan's multiple
humanitarian crises. Such decisions as that decried by the UN, they
point out, was an internal matter, requiring respect.
In
the wake of the Taliban takeover of the country and the following
economic collapse, aid agencies' role has been crucial in the provision
of food, education and health care support. Distribution has been a
problem, severely affected by the Taliban edict that banned women from
working at non-governmental organizations; citing that they weren't
wearing the hijab correctly, or following gender segregation rules.
Members of the Taliban stand guard at the entrance gate of Kabul
University in Kabul a day after the Taliban said female
students would not be allowed access to the country's universities until
further notice. (Ali Khara/Reuters)
"It is our assessment that the Taliban and ISIS-K are mortal enemies."
"So theTaliban is highly motivated to go after ISIS-K. Their ability to do so, I think, is to be determined."
"We need to be vigilant in disrupting that [Islamic State and al-Qaeda becoming capable of striking the United States]."
Colin Kahl, U.S. Undersecretary of Defence for Policy
A man stands near the scene of a blast in Kabul. EPA
According to an assessment by the American intelligence community, Islamic State in Afghanistan could reach capability to enable them to attack the United States in as little time as six months from the present. The intention to launch attacks from Afghanistan into the West and particularly America is there, according to senior Pentagon official, Colin Kahl.
Clearly, Afghanistan is in perilous shape, its leadership has reverted to the Taliban under the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan which has promised the world and specifically the U.S. that the country would not again become a vector of Islamist terrorist launches outside the country. National security concerns are more valid now than ever, since the peremptory exit of the U.S. military from the impoverished country led by an Islamist faction whose misrule and penchant for violence is little different from other terrorist groups.
Ostensibly enemies of Islamic State, the Taliban appear to have made an effort to impose law and order with the departure of the U.S. and other NATO-aligned states, leaving Afghans to fend for themselves under the Taliban which has finally realized its goal of return to governance. A return that has heralded a mad rush of panicked Afghan civilians to leave the country where Taliban forces have picked up their assaults against minority groups.
The ruling group which had launched violent attacks against the 'foreign invaders' as well as Afghans who rebelled against their harsh rule now seek out the hiding places of former government elite, government workers and Afghans who had aligned their futures with that of the Republic of Afghanistan's fledgling democratic order, albeit flush with traditional corruption.
A funeral for victims of a landmine in Taliban controlled territory EPA
The sister terrorist groups of al-Qaeda and Islamic State feel comfortable in Afghanistan which has become yet another natural home of Islamist terrorist groups. Islamic State has targeted minority Shiite Afghans in bombings. It has also made it clear that it has the utmost contempt for the Taliban's style of Islam and the administration of sharia, as being feeble and unIslamic; fiercely brutal it may be, but the Islamic State glories in gore to an absolute state.
It was Mr. Kahl's estimate that a "cadre of a few thousand" fighters comprise the numbers faithful to Islamic State. Without making mention, it would appear, of the ongoing recruitment in the West and the establishment of other groups loyal to Islamic State throughout Africa. Yet Mr. Kahl's feeling is that a larger threat than Islamic State looms in the future of the U.S., through al-Qaeda's plans to continue where it left off with the death of its leader bin Laden.
It might take al-Qaeda "a year or two" to fully regenerate its capacity to carry out future attacks outside Afghanistan with the United States its end goal, he asserts. As a result, the U.S. must set its goal on disrupting the groups intent on assaulting the United States, to ensure they fail to reach the capability of striking within the country as they infamously did in 2001.
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the World Community
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and the World Community
"The Panjwaii people, they suffered a lot from the war and
drought."
"With
the help of Allah, our God, we will provide good security when you
bring some aid to the people. And you can return back to your home
without any suffering."
"As you suffered from the Afghanistan war, we suffered too. In the future, do not attack our
land, our nation; don't use drones on our land."
"There is no
security threat. The only problem we have is that the
international community is not recognizing Afghanistan."
Syfe Rahman Syfm new district chief, Panjwaii District Centre
Well,
of course the international community recognizes Afghanistan. The
Afghanistan that was called the Republic of Afghanistan, when
Afghan-style democratic elections took place to elect government
officials, despite the corruption rife in every aspect of life in the
country; traditional and ongoing. It is the Afghanistan now ruled by the
Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, by the Taliban that fails to receive
official international recognition. But the Taliban leadership feels
empowered to insist on international support for their Islamist Emirate.
Is a transition
period of two months long enough to review the actions of the Taliban to
conclude what their rule as the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will
look like? Resemble their previous time in power when anything remotely
resembling freedom for Afghans from the shackles of Islamist sharia was
strictly forbidden? When hospitals that treated men could not treat
women who had their own assigned hospitals where only females themselves
garbed in head-to-toe burqas could examine and treat women and girls?
When music and parties were forbidden?
Where
girls were not permitted to gain an education? When men whose beards
were merely suggestive rated public beatings? When women improperly
garbed in public and an inch of bare skin on ankle or a wrist could be
seen merited a lashing? When women and girls had to be accompanied
outside their homes by male relatives?
When
so much as a greeting between a woman and man not of the same family
was forbidden. When the carnal sin of physical contact between the sexes
could rate a prison sentence. When extramarital affairs could guarantee
public stoning and death? When women were expected to remain in their
houses, forbidden to work outside the home. Where girls as young as ten
were considered old enough to 'marry' Taliban fighters? That
Afghanistan.
The
Taliban are in power in Kandahar province, where former Taliban fighters are now in government, are on a mission
to restore international help under the new
regime. CBC
In
August, the Taliban stormed the countryside, then the cities as the
Afghan military and national police scattered before their onslaught. As
they neared Kabul, the government suddenly melted away. Knowing they
were slated to be hunted down, imprisoned or killed. Government
employees in all government departments would be sought out through
house-to-house searches and penalties meted out to them. Imprisonment,
death. Of course when the Trump administration negotiated with Taliban
spokesmen in Doha, Qatar promises were extracted in exchange for a
U.S./NATO withdrawal.
A
withdrawal badly wanted by both sides. The U.S. and other foreign
troops to finally wash their hands of a protracted unwinnable war
against a pathology of theistic conquest. The Taliban yearning to see
the last of U.S. troops so they could get on with their mission
unimpeded by the presence of foreign troops whose fixation on human
rights was so infuriatingly irritating. August 15 marked the end of the
Republic of Afghanistan, and the culmination of American shame.
Pakistan
exulted along with the Taliban, for of course the Taliban is their
creature; the bulwark against India's possible presence in Afghanistan.
As was Syria in Lebanon, so is Pakistan in Afghanistan. Iran benefits,
China benefits, Russia benefits as long as the Taliban, as warned and
acquiesced keep their terrorist adversaries and partners within
Afghanistan, from Islamic State in Khoristan to al-Qaeda, and the
Islamist Uyghurs.
"I am particularly alarmed to see promises made to Afghan women and girls by the Taliban being broken",
mourned U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. Did he really and
truly expect otherwise? The 38 million Afghans now living under Taliban
rule expected nothing else; certainly the country's women dreaded the
transition, swift and brutal and now it is their future. Teen girls who
hoped to continue their education now sit at home.
Social/cultural/religious hostages.
As
for the promise to the U.S. negotiators, primarily the splendid choice
of Zalmay Khalilzad who assured the Biden administration that a swift
Taliban takeover of the country in the sudden absence of U.S. troops
wouldn't occur: "I don't believe it's a likely scenario",
well, surprise, surprise. And nor would the promise by the Taliban to
the U.S. that it would form an inclusive government representing the
interests of all Afghans by the Pashtun-majority Taliban take place
since thousands of Hazara families were driven from Daikundi, Helmand
and Kandahar in bloody ethnic-cleansing operations.
Women at the Panjwaii District Centre try to appeal to a
Sharia court to solve their problems. The Taliban says it will solve
disputes using a strict interpretation of Sharia law. The women don't
appear to have secured a hearing. (Ellen Mauro/CBC)
"The international order now, it's just might makes right."
"If
you have power nobody is going to stop you from doing anything. If we
don't deal with the Taliban, if we sanction them, they don't really
care. If we stop their officials from visiting the U.S., be it for
education or trade or other opportunities, there is China. There is
Russia. They don't care."
"Afghans
now are most concerned with just having food on the table and a roof
over their heads, with the basic necessities of life."
"That is how things are. Might makes right."
Irfan Yar, managing director, Afghanistan Security Institute, Ottawa, Canada
De
facto diplomatic recognition of the Islamic Emirate has been extended
by China, Iran and Russia. The Biden administration announced it was
prepared to permit American aid agencies and private groups to resume
sending food and medicine to Afghanistan. Not providing it directly to
the Taliban of course, they reassure themselves; it's meant for the
suffering Afghan people. And they are suffering. Mass starvation looms,
the UN World Food Program warns.
Figures
post that 97 percent of the population is facing poverty. Close to half
of the population is reliant on humanitarian aid, according to the UN
Development program. And so, the West, through the G20, the United
States and the European Union have resigned themselves to engaging with
the Taliban albeit planning to withhold diplomatic recognition. That's a
neat trick.
In
meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusogin the Taliban
foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, a sanctioned UN-designated terrorist
-- gained NATO-member Turkey's comradely gesture in urging UN member
states to support the Taliban.
The Panjwaii District Centre was opened by Canada in 2009,
part of economic development in Panjwaii. Today it's headquarters for
the Taliban district office, Sharia court and adjacent to the former
military-operations centre for Canada, the U.S. and Afghan forces. (Susan Ormiston/CBC)
"We are worried about these sticky bombs that once we used to apply to
target our enemies in Kabul."
"We are concerned about our leadership as
they could target them if not controlled them successfully."
"Their main structure is broken and they are now divided in small groups to carry out attacks."
Taliban intelligence official
"In
Afghanistan, the return of Taliban is a huge victory for the
Islamists."
"They have celebrated the
return of the Taliban, so I think that Afghanistan is the new theatre."
Rohan Gunaratna, professor of security studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
"If the [Islamic State in Khorisan] is true, China's concerns about terrorism in [Afghanistan] -- to which the Taliban claims to be receptive -- will increase."
Michael Kugelman, deputy director, Asia Program, Wilson Center
A
screen grab shows an emergency vehicle as people arrive at a hospital
after an attack at Kabul airport, in Kabul, Afghanistan August 26, 2021.
REUTERS TV/via REUTERS
Of both terrorist groups, the Taliban now has an air of legitimacy as it fumbles in its attempts to officially administer its newborn territory the Islamist Emirate of Afghanistan. It has returned to slightly modified methods of its former administration of the country but at present it has company. Since its last administration a local version of Islamic State has ensconced itself alongside al-Qaeda, as a far more severely fundamentalist version of Islamic sharia which scorns the Taliban as nothing more but a pale imitation of the Western-backed government it shoved aside.
The Taliban has its Emirate restored, the Islamic State is determined to restore its sundered Caliphate, and Afghanistan is just as good a place to start as any. All the violent tricks that the Taliban pioneered in terrorizing the country are now in the hands of the IS-K who have sent their trademark suicide bombers on bloody missions to ensure their message is received. From bombing the Kabul airport as U.S. troops were departing and Afghans desperately awaited airlift out, to a more recent bombing of a Shiite mosque killing 100 and injuring hundreds more.
In new negotiations with the U.S. taking place in Doha, Qatar, senior Taliban officials have made it clear they are not interested in the American offer to give them aid in opposing the presence of IS-K terrorists, insisting they are more than capable of handling the group themselves. They have, after all, had ample experience in their two decades of IEDing foreign troops and meeting their conventional military presence with guerrilla tactics.
What does concern the Taliban is the potential for their leaders to be targeted with 'sticky bombs' adhering to the underside of vehicles, just as they themselves once used that tactic among many others to annihilate Afghanistan's government officials and Western interlopers. Pakistan has become another interlocutor, trying to lure the U.S. to engage with the new rulers of the country; above all to release billions in international funds to allow the Taliban to get on with rebuilding what they've destroyed.
After Friday's attack at a mosque in Kunduz, the IS affiliate identified the bomber as a Uyghur Muslim who targeted both Shiites and the Taliban in response to their agreement to expel Uyghurs to please China. The prediction is that more such attacks will be in the offing, challenging the Taliban's efforts to build relations with its neighbours, specifically China. Most Uyghur militants are part of the border regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan, belonging to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.
There are mounting threats from the Islamic State affiliate in the wake of the Kunduz attack, and Afghans who had fled the Talibans' takeover in August, living in tents are now vulnerable. Up to 1.3 million Afghans were displaced in past wars. The Taliban have mounted returns of displaced families. Some to return to Kunduz. "At least there we have four walls" said one Afghan woman. "Winter is on the way. There is no firewood. We need water and food."
IS-K claimed responsibility for the deadly attack outside Kabul airport on 26 August Getty Images
The Enduring Deterrent Effect of Amputations and Public Executions
Taliban leader Mullah Nooruddin Turabi AP
"Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we
have never said anything about their laws and their punishments."
"No one will tell us what our laws
should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the
Qur'an."
"Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security [deterrent effect. The Cabinet is studying whether to
do punishments in public and will] develop a policy."
"[The Taliban would allow television, mobile phones, photos and video]
because this is the necessity of the people, and we are serious about
it."
"[The Taliban views the media as a way to spread
their message.] Now we know instead of reaching just hundreds, we can
reach millions."
"We had complete safety in every part of the country [in the late 1990s of their previous rule]."
Taliban co-founder, Mullah Nooruddin Turabi
The Taliban swiftly grasped control of Afghanistan amid the
withdrawal of U.S troops from the country last month. There are
continuing signs the Taliban's hardline views and tactics are not a
thing of the past. (West Asia News Agency/Reuters)
"It’s not a good thing to see these people being shamed in public, but
it stops the criminals because when people see it, they think ‘I don’t
want that to be me'."
Amaan, Kabul store owner
"In our Sharia it's clear, for those who have sex and are unmarried,
whether it's a girl or a boy, the punishment is 100 lashes in public."
:But for anyone who's married, they have to be stoned to
death..."
"For those who steal: if it's proved, then his hand should be
cut off."
Taliban judge in Balkh, Haji Badruddin
The
genteel reassurance has been revealed for what it was, a purely
temporary ruse to persuade the outside world that the Taliban are really
responsible caretakers of Afghanistan. Not what the media in the West
make them out to be; fanatical Islamist fundamentalists following sharia
to the letter of its laws as they interpret them; no shades of grey,
rigidly black-and-white: guilty as charged renders an accused vulnerable
to amputation or public execution.
The
Taliban view corporal punishment as educational devices; a warning to
any others who might conceivably be contemplating criminal offences,
anathema in the considered opinion of the pious Islamists who honour
Islam and the Prophet Mohammad by closely following sacred instructions
on managing lawbreakers by extracting painful punishments of permanent
disfigurements (lopping off ears and noses), amputations (complete disablement), or surrender of life itself.
It
has started. Once again capital punishment for social crimes is meted
out; kidnapping meriting death, the body hung in a public square hanging
off a crane. For lesser crimes public humiliation will do; steal bread
because you're hungry and bread will be stuffed in your mouth, and you
paraded as a criminal-thief displayed on the back of a truck as it
drives down busy streets, drawing the attention of shoppers, business
people, idlers and burqa-clad women. Citizens are required to witness,
to take note, to understand this could be their fate should they dare to
bring offence.
People look up at a dead body hung by the Taliban from a crane — not
shown in this image — in the main square of the city of Herat, in
western Afghanistan, on Saturday. (The Associated Press)
As
yet the governing council of the Taliban is undecided whether public
executions will take place in public. As an entertainment with a message
'Do not emulate the forbidden actions of these criminal elements among you. See how they pay the price for their actions!'
And when executions are in the offing the public is informed and
advised that attendance is not optional. Unless they can be trusted to
view at a distance via social media; a new and improved innovation;
marrying modern technology to ancient barbaric rituals.
Nooruddin
Turabi, a Taliban co-founder known for formulating and administering
the rules of deterrence in the first iteration of the governing Taliban,
and now a venerable 60 years of age, has been reappointed to the vital
role of overseeing the vice and virtues of the people of Afghanistan.
Morality is a subject of great moment to this government. It must be
upheld as the pinnacle of Islamic values, instructing all of the
expectations incumbent upon them as proud citizens of an ancient
country.
There have been reports of women's rights being brutally restricted Reuters
City
streets will once again be patrolled by the morality police, and dress
infractions by women will be instantly met with appropriate punishment;
the public humiliation of public beatings. The lesson driven home, if
need be, that it is better, much, much better for one's peace of mind,
much less reputation to be honoured as a modest woman in full compliance
with Islamist custom and sharia law, to be fully encased in stifling
dark fabric, peering at the world through a narrow slit, taking care no
inch of bare skin can be seen by helplessly lascivious men.
No
more music, no more dancing, no more drama classes, or parties. None of
which do honour to Islam. Men and women must not be seen in close
proximity; women should ideally be accompanied by male family members,
never speaking to men, nor looking directly at them without betraying
their wantonness. Requiring due correction. The greater tolerance of
social mores not in concert with Islamist principles hinted at
previously have been reconsidered.
Men's
beards must be fully visible, not snipped short and they too must dress
themselves modestly. However, this new Taliban reiteration is not
destined to completely re-enact previous restrictions where girls may
not under any circumstances attend school or exit their homes, as long
as the sexes are completely separated some concessions may apply in
educating girls. The expansion of the previous edicts that only females
may administer medical services to females has been expanded to include
women judges sitting in judgement of other women.
The more tolerant Taliban will now permit television, cellphones and media. "This
is the necessity of the people, and we are serious about it. Now we
know instead of reaching just hundreds,we can reach millions". The Taliban has exited the dark ages....
On September 8, 2021, journalists Nemat Naqdi (left) and
Taqi Daryabi were tortured and beaten by Taliban fighters for reporting
on women’s rights.MARCUS YAM / LOS ANGELES TIMES
Students attend class under new classroom conditions at Avicenna
University in Kabul, Afghanistan September 6, 2021. Social media handout/via REUTERS
"Sharia ... does not allow men and women to get together or sit together under one roof."
"Men and women cannot work together. That is clear. They are not allowed to come to our offices and work in our ministries."
Waheedullah Hashimi, senior figure, Taliban
"She [former member of the previous Afghan parliament] has been told she will be killed if the Taliban get hold of her. They have already raided her home; they have already hanged her dog."
"The best outcome she believed if she is caught by the Taliban is to be shot and killed. What she fears is being brutalized and her family being brutalized."
"She has been abandoned and if women like her are all killed, there won't be any women left in Afghanistan to take on the positions the Taliban is offering them."
Nusrat Ghani, British Conservative Member of Parliament
"The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is home for all Afghans. [The Taliban repeatedly extended negotiation invitations with leaders of the opposition forces in Panjshir] but unfortunately, unfortunately, without any result."
"But we are still trying to ensure that there is no war and that the issue in Panjshir is resolved calmly and peacefully."
Amir Khan Motazi, senior Taliban leader
Taliban members patrol
after they entered the Panjshir Valley, the only province the group had
not seized during its sweep last month in Afghanistan on September 6,
2021.
Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Panjshir's mountains have welcomed the presence of the National Resistance Front led by Ahmad Massoud, along with local militias and remnants of army and special forces units holding out against the Taliban. They joined in battle, the greater numbers of Taliban fighters with their newly-acquired military weaponry inherited from the former Afghan military and abandoned U.S. military bases, giving them an obvious advantage, allowing them to claim the pacification of the Panjshir Valley, now in their hands. Where not only resistance combatants have lost their lives but valley civilians as well.
The Taliban of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is not in the habit of graciously forgiving its adversaries and allowing them to get on with their new lives under Taliban rule. It is much more efficacious as they see it, to just kill the offenders and take them out of contention.
Afghan resistance
movement and anti-Taliban uprising forces take part in military training
at the Abdullah Khil area of Dara district in Panjshir province on
August 24, 2021.
Ahmad Sahel Arman | AFP | Getty Images
As for the former government's female MPs, 67 in number, half remain in the country unable to reach Western evacuation opportunities. Fearing for their lives they remain in hiding. Soft-peddling their renewed opportunity to rule the country, Taliban leaders have spoken promisingly, almost ingratiatingly to the Western societies that had been so generous in providing aid funding to the impoverished country where corruption at every level is simply a way of its cultural antecedents.
Assurances that women's place in society is vouchsafed, that girls may continue to attend school that women will be allowed to achieve higher education levels, to work and to thrive under the Taliban -- under sharia law -- these issues represent a real problem in persuading Western benefactors to continue providing the country with financial aid to enable it to rebuild its infrastructure and refinance its economy. Funding that has been withheld until such time those with the purse strings are assured that the Taliban no longer plans to continue its misogynistic agenda.
The Taliban appear now to fully implement sharia in its image, irrespective of pressure from the international community urging it to permit women the right to work wherever they wish. Initially the Taliban agreed it intended to allow women to study and to work within limits laid down by Islamic law. Women were barred from education and employment from 1996 to 2001 and confined to their homes but for those times male relatives accompanied them in public garbed in black burqas.
Students attend class under new classroom conditions at Avicenna
University in Kabul, Afghanistan September 6, 2021. Social media handout/via REUTERS
Billions have been pledged by donors with a view to helping Afghanistan now assailed with total privation where poverty and hunger spiralled upward since the Taliban regained power, resulting in foreign aid disappearing. According to UN Secrtary-Genral Antonio Guterres, it was not possible to venture how much financial aid was promised responding to an emergency UN appeal for $600 million to aid the crisis-torn country. "The people of Afghanistan are facing the collapse of an entire country -- all at once", he said, appealing for aid.
The possibility of food supplies running out by month's end led the World Food Program to announce that 14 million people stood on the brink of starvation. Even as UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet spoke of Western misgivings in aiding the Taliban, accusing them of breaking promises, once again ordering women to remain in their homes, of keeping teens from attending school, and continuing to violently persecute former opponents.
Veiled students attend a Taliban rally at the Shaheed Rabbani Education University in Kabul on Saturday. EPA
Women Have No Need To Play Sport In the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
"In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this. It is the media era, and there will be photos and videos, and then people watch it."
"Islam and the Islamic Emirate do not allow women to play cricket or play the kind of sports where they get exposed."
Ahmadullah Wasiq, deputy head, cultural commission, Taliban Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan
The Afghanistan players will now train at exclusive female-only centres Afghanistan Cricket Board
No playing cricket or any other sport in Afghanistan for women. Confirmed by the Taliban who will not permit such a moral outrage on their watch. How could it be otherwise when Taliban have been beating women protesters and reporters covering forbidden demonstrations against their rule, in Kabul. This is a movement that books no challenges. Rules are rules and if they're viewed as hard-line positions on women's rights well, surprise, they are!
Deputy head of the cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq was unequivocal; women must not play sports since they would ultimately be "exposing" their faces and bodies and in so doing breaching "Islamic dress code". "I don't think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women should play cricket", he informed news sources, when asked specifically about the country's cricket team.
There are now twenty-five female Afghan cricketers who were awarded contracts by Afghanistan's own Cricket Board away back in another era altogether -- November of last year. As far as anyone knows, the women are continuing to receive pay as per their contract. This would be the female Afghan cricketers who are now forced to go into hiding, in Kabul.
But hold on: while the Taliban announced their permission for male cricket teams to carry on, a little wrinkle has surfaced in the smooth sailing they envisage: by banning women's sport, the future of Afghanistan's hugely popular men's teams may be in peril. The International Cricket Council granted Afghanistan full Test match status in 2017.
And this requires all 12 of its full members to ensure the existence of a national women's team. At this juncture, the ICC has plans to poll international bodies with respect to how best address Afghanistan's situation. What is certain is that internationally the broad consensus is that if men can play sport, so too can and should women, a widely accepted and timely nod to equality.
And while the Afghanistan men's team have a Test in Hobart against Australia in November and next month are due to compete at the T20 World Cup, their situation now appears to be rather tenuously uncertain. However, emphasized Mr. Wasiq, the Taliban has no intention of compromising its position. "Even for this, if we face challenges and problems, we have fought for our religion so that Islam is to be followed."
Afghan girls playing cricket on their school grounds in Kabul ... 2010 Photo
"The helicopters are the most expensive item, but
the ability of the Taliban to operate and maintain them without outside
help is modest."
"The absence of U.S. logistical support
will lead to a steady decay in the state of the residual Afghan
military arsenal. Even small arms will gradually become unusable if not
properly maintained."
"MRAPs are real gas-guzzlers, so their value in a
country where fuel supplies are scarce and terrorist attacks have
largely ceased is doubtful."
Dr. Loren Thompson, military analyst, Lexington Institute think-tank
"I would tell you that they can inspect all they want. They can look at them, they can walk around, but they can't fly them."
"They
can't operate them. We made sure to demilitarize - to make unusable all
the gear that is at the airport,"
"The only thing we left
operable are a couple of fire trucks and forklifts so that the airport
can remain more operational going forward."
Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby
"They'll never be able to be operated by anyone."
"Most of them were
non-mission capable, to begin with, but certainly they'll never be able
to be flown again."
Marine Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, head of U.S. Central Command
Humvees parked at Camp Phoenix, Kabul, Afghanistan Meg Jones, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Taliban fighters atop a Humvee vehicle in Kabul as they celebrate after
the US pulled all its troops out of the country (Photo: AFP)
A helicopter displaying a Taliban flag fly above of supporters gathered
to celebrate the US withdrawal of all its troops out of Afghanistan, in
Kandahar on September 1, 2021. (JAVED TANVEER / AFP)
"This
decision about Afghanistan is not just about Afghanistan. It's about
ending an era of major military operations to remake other countries."
"I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit."
"Yes,
the American people should hear this. Three hundred million dollars a
day for two decades. What have we lost as consequences in terms of
opportunities? I refuse to continue a war that was no longer in the
vital national interests of our people. We've been a nation too long at
war."
"There is nothing 'low grade' or 'low risk' about any war."
U.S.President Joe Biden
"I had to go to the bank with my mother but when I went, the Taliban [were] beating women with sticks."
"It's the first time I've ever seen something like that and it really frightened me."
22-year-old, name-withheld Afghan woman
"It is a historical day and a historical moment."
"We are proud of these moments, that we liberated our country from a great power."
Zabihullah Mujahid spokesman, Taliban
"We demilitarized those systems so that they'll never be used again."
"We felt it more important to protect our forces than to bring those systems back."
In
his interview with reporters General McKenzie confirmed that over 150
military vehicles and aircraft had been disabled by U.S. forces before
they left Afghanistan on the cusp of 31 August, the agreed-upon
withdrawal date for all U.S. and NATO-allied countries which had taken
part in the U.S.-led mission to capture al-Qaeda's leader and in the
process oust the governing Taliban Islamists for refusing to surrender
Osama bin Laden, the esteemed guest of the Taliban, to U.S. forces.
The
invasion represented the U.S.'s and its allies' reaction to the
al-Qaeda-planned and -executed attacks on the World Trade Center, and
Pentagon in 2001. The side-effect of that action was the removal of an
Islamist fundamentalist tyrannical government that reviled democratic
values and human rights, administering the affairs of the war-wracked
country under strict sharia law that marginalized women and girls and
practised capital punishment as just desserts for opposing sharia
strictures.
The
Taliban proved implacable to conventional conflict meant to subdue them
and destroy their ambitions; for two decades they regularly spent the
winter months in the mountains separating Afghanistan and Pakistan,
sponsored by, trained by, and funded and armed by the Pakistan
Interagency Intelligence service. In the spring they descended to carry
on their insurgency. President Biden's logic and sanctimony over U.S.
intervention in the affairs of other countries will not serve his
country well.
The
very Islamist fundamentalists who succeeded in shocking the world
community by the audacity and success of the 9/11 attacks have not been
defeated. The Wahhabist, Deobandist and Salafist extremists are firmly
established in Afghanistan's hinterlands where the Islamic State of
Khorasan lost no time in reminding the U.S. of their presence and their
mission when suicide bombers killed 13 U.S.Marines and scores of Afghans
at Kabul airport which the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (Taliban) were supposedly protecting.
Taliban forces celebrate the withdrawal of US forces in Kandahar.
As
for the tumult and chaos and violence of the U.S. evacuation of
Afghanistan -- a highly preventable event which succeeded in producing
inestimable damage to American prestige, its power image, and its
relations with its allies, there is no excuse other than rank and
deliberate ignorance of the risks involved in such an abandonment
despite that U.S. intelligence oversight made it clear that the
confusion, chaos and harm done would be the result of such an
ignominious exit. "I take responsibility", said President
Biden.
Leaving the Taliban in control of a grater territory than they controlled before the allied West's entry in 2001.
"This was a disgraceful and disastrous departure that will allow the
Taliban and al-Qaeda to celebrate the 20th anniversary of 9/11 by having
complete control of Afghanistan. We are less safe as a result of this
self-inflicted wound", lashed out U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.
Almost
two-and-a-half thousand U.S. troops were killed in those two decades in
Afghanistan, and many others among the militaries of NATO allies
supporting the U.S. in the country. At the same time an estimated
240,000 Afghans lost their lives. The cost to the Western treasury,
borne mostly by the U.S. for those 20 years in Afghanistan was $2
trillion, a sum impossible to imagine, one that hugely benefited
contractors of all stripes in a massive undertaking of undocumented and
deliberate corruption.
In
Kandahar, Taliban supporters celebrated the return to power of those
who had defied conventional warfare for the troop-defying exploits of
guerrilla warfare. In the eastern city of Khost a funeral took place,
coffins draped with Western flags, symbolic of Western forces departing
in a flurry of excited pressure as desperate Afghans clamoured to be
taken along to safety from the Taliban. The image of the powerful,
wealthy nations of the Western democracies coffined in their demise,
celebrated, not mourned.
Taliban supporters gather to listen to the Taliban's governor for Kandahar province.
The
chaotic airlift managed to evacuate over 123,000 desperate people from
Kabul by the United States and its allies in a frenetic two-week period.
Many Afghans who had helped the Western forces and their diplomats
stationed in Afghanistan, desperate to leave and escape the certain
retribution as traitors awaiting them by the Taliban were left behind,
to face their fate or somehow manage to extricate themselves.
The
Taliban are jubilant; not only did they 'force' the largest,
best-trained and -equipped military the world has ever seen to retreat
and leave the spoils to them, they were left in possession of
billions-worth of military equipment. The U.S. spent $83 billion in
providing the Afghan national police and military with technologically
advanced weaponry. That is all now in the hands of their successors, the
Taliban, along with all the rolling stock and weapons left by the
departing American troops.
A C-130 at Hamid Karzai International Airport Getty Images
Videos
have been posted online with the Taliban inspecting endless lines of
vehicles, opening crates of new firearms, of communications gear, of
military drones. "Everything that hasn't been destroyed is the Taliban's now", an American official speaking anonymously, confided to Reuters.
The Taliban, it is now estimated, are the proud possessors of over
2,000 armoured vehicles inclusive of U.S. Humvees; up to 40 aircraft,
including UH-60 Black Hawks, Scout attack helicopters and ScanEagle
military drones.
The
U.S. military, said Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, is unconcerned with
Taliban members wearing abandoned American military uniforms, walking
about Kabul with American weapons, sizing up U.S. helicopters at Kabul
aircraft; they could inspect all they wanted, he said, but would not be
capable of flying them. And how wrong he was; members of the Afghan
military, trained by Americans to fly the helicopters, who recognized
the expediency of going over to the Taliban are more than capable of
teaching their new masters.
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
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