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A Somber Anniversary: The Taliban Targets Opponents, Denies Basic Human Rights [1]
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Date: 2023-08-06 14:00:00
The somber second anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Kabul will occur in mid-August. In two years, the answer to the question, “Will the Taliban be as bad as before, when it was in power in Afghanistan from 1996-2001?” has become clear: The Taliban is worse. Despite promises to the contrary, the regime has adopted policies that have resulted in its opponents being targeted and killed, women and girls treated inhumanely, and young and old left to watch their dreams vanish.
First, in 2021, the Taliban made the hollow promise that once in power, it would declare a general amnesty for its opponents. Instead, the Taliban has hunted and killed hundreds of former military and security officials, civil servants, government officials, journalists and human rights leaders. Freedom House is one of several NGOs that have continued to help human rights defenders get to safety, but reaching safe shelter anywhere is very hard and life in exile — coping with expired visas, unemployment, disappearing savings, no offers of help to relocate soon and threats of deportation back to Afghanistan — is also a struggle.
Second, the Taliban has issued a steady stream of edicts that prohibit many aspects of normal life. These include edicts against the education and activities of women and girls that seem designed to stamp out their ability to support themselves and any enjoyment of life — and thus their mental health suffers. In September 2021, not long after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, all girls were told to leave school after grade 6. In December 2022, women were barred from attending universities. Women have been barred from working for international NGOs or reporting to work in United Nations offices. Some are allowed to work from home, but entire economic sectors are now restricted for men.
Starting in December 2021, the Taliban banned women from traveling on long-distance road trips without a male relative as a chaperone or mahram. Later, women were banned from public transportation unless they were with a mahram. Driving licenses are no longer issued to women.
No visits to parks for mothers and their little children. No music. No restaurant visits for unescorted women, an edict replacing one that required separate seating for men and women. Even beauty salons are being shut down. This may sound like a minor inconvenience but, according to Al Jazeera, “Salons are one of the few remaining public spaces where women can safely socialise.” The BBC quoted a source in the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry who said there are 12,000 beauty salons across Afghanistan, each of which supported five women, on average, and their families.
Some of the consequences of Taliban decrees are deadly. According to the Taliban, women can only be seen and treated by female doctors, but now there are no female medical students to become future doctors. Both women who enter health centers as patients and those among the medical staff must be accompanied to clinics by a mahram. This requirement is particularly hard for widows and female-headed households.
The cumulative impact of these edicts is to trap women as prisoners in their homes — expected to stay put, run a household, and raise poorly-educated children on little or no income.
Civic space — meaning a role in society for media, political parties, institutions and good-government groups — has shrunk. Protests and slogans that don’t have prior approval from the Taliban were banned early on and, despite this, courageous women still protest their ostracism from public life. The penalties for doing so are harsh, such as arrest and torture.
Taliban actions are not just bad governance; they add up to crimes against humanity. Amnesty International reports that oppression of women and girls in Afghanistan could amount to gender persecution, which is a crime against humanity, according to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
While the Taliban policies focus disproportionately on women, the regime also targets ethnic and religious minorities — increasing the risk of mass atrocities — and is narrowing freedom for men too.
Third, the Taliban’s seizure of power is also worse compared to 1996 because so much of the investment of recent decades appears lost. The Taliban has seized power, but does not represent the majority of the people of Afghanistan. The nation’s progress toward democracy over 20 years — as difficult as that was, hampered by war, terrorism, societal fissures and corruption — was derailed by the Taliban’s takeover.
In the meantime, Afghans who fear for their lives try to make their way to Pakistan and other neighboring countries, or apply to travel onward to Germany, Canada, the United States or Australia. Few make it, because there are few visas issued and large backlogs of Afghan applicants seeking to resettle through legal pathways; most go on waiting. Refugee resettlement programs should be expanded and accelerated instead.
The international community must pressure the Taliban to stop their horrendous acts. Regrettably, there are few levers to force change, although Taliban government ministers reportedly receive a steady stream of foreign visitors. Most recently, U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West and Special Envoy for Women, Children and Human Rights in Afghanistan Rina Amiri traveled to Doha to meet with representatives of the regime and ministry technocrats. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk has acknowledged small improvements through contacts: “Yet some openings for engagement have been possible, by the Special Rapporteur, by other experts, and notably, our field presence on the ground — for instance, through continued visits to prisons.”
This is a far cry from what is needed in Afghanistan, but it can be a start as long as each interlocutor raises a precondition for further engagement: restoring women’s rights and respect for all human rights.
In the shadow of the somber anniversary of the fall of Kabul, the voices of so many in Afghanistan will continue to be silenced under the weight of the Taliban’s rule. There are no easy solutions — and success will not be measured in the number of statements issued for the anniversary but in the actions taken in the days and weeks to come. It is abundantly clear that the people suffering under the Taliban deserve urgent attention and the support of the international community. Their future and the future of Afghanistan hang in the balance.
Anne C. Richard is a Senior Adviser on Afghanistan Coordination and Distinguished Fellow at Freedom House.
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