As protests against Tehran’s authoritarian theocratic regime spread across Shiite Iran since mid-September last year, isolated protests against the Sunni extremist Taliban regime, already a year in power, had begun in neighboring Afghanistan.
Although the protests in the self-proclaimed “Islamic emirate” of Afghanistan were decidedly smaller in pulse and size compared to Iran, organized mostly by women from the Hazara Shiite minority, they continued for several weeks and were strengthened by the participation of students, despite the brutal repression and prohibitions.
Faced with this potential spillover of unrest and direct challenge to their Western-isolated regime, the Taliban are responding with a new crescendo of authoritarianism.
So, almost a year and a half after the chaotic military withdrawal of the US and the West from the long-suffering Central Asian country, with Afghanistan’s economy in tatters and their regime under sanctions, the shadowy successors of the one-eyed Mullah Omar are preaching this time… war against their own people.
Having women permanently in their “crosshairs” anyway, they proceed with new flagrant violations of their rights, despite initial assurances to the contrary of a political return to Kabul under different terms.
Showing that they were further radicalized in the 20 years of insurgency since they first came to power (1996-2001), they now appear willing to “invest” in tension even in their relations with neighboring Pakistan, where cross-border incidents are increasing.
They are demonstrably “deaf”, in the face of the new international outcry and the appeals of the UN, at a time when a humanitarian crisis is ongoing inside Afghanistan, which is taking on more and more nightmarish proportions.
Prison state
Against the backdrop of girls being barred from secondary education as early as last spring, as well as the more recent ban on women appearing in public parks, gyms and baths starting in November, the final days of 2022 have brought a “rain” of new bans from the Taliban.
In the middle of their studies, Afghan female students were arrested shortly before Christmas and excluded from all universities.
At the same time, the employment of women was prohibited even in non-governmental organizations – international and non- international – throughout the affected country, while they constitute on average one third of their staff.
The Kabul regime’s official justification was non-compliance with the Islamic dress code, which in Afghanistan’s case includes the burqa. However, unlike in the distant past, the announcements were not accepted without protest.
There have been demonstrations by female students outside universities – which were violently suppressed – and male students walking out of exams in support of their banned fellow students and displeasure with the oppressive Afghan regime.
Muslim states criticized the attitude of Kabul – although some hypocrites, such as e.g. Saudi Arabia and Qatar, where in 2022 women remain captive to “male guardianship”.
The message sent earlier this week by the acting head of the UN mission to the Kabul regime regarding the need to reverse the latest decisions fell on deaf ears.
The Taliban said they were “ready” for additional “sanctions from the international community”, declaring that they would not change their position “even if they drop an atomic bomb on us”. Inside the country, meanwhile, the risk of a humanitarian catastrophe is becoming more and more visible.
Collective punishment
According to the United Nations and aid agencies, more than half of the estimated 39 million Afghans are in need of humanitarian aid to survive the harsh winter.
But short of staff following the Taliban’s latest ban, at least six humanitarian organizations have already announced the suspension of their activities in the country.
The blow is two-fold for Afghan women: those employed by humanitarian organizations until now had a pivotal role in the country, as the only ones allowed to interact with other women and households in need.
Now “banning their participation will limit the ability to support the growing number of those in need of help and therefore risks exacerbating an already serious humanitarian crisis,” Christian Aid stressed in its latest statement.
“Furthermore, in the context of the severe economic crisis Afghanistan is going through,” he added, “this decision will deeply upset families who depend on the income of women aid workers.”
Along with Cristian Aid, ActionAid, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, CARE International and the International Rescue Committee (IRC) announced the temporary suspension of their work on Afghan soil.
Western countries such as Germany are even considering cutting humanitarian aid to Afghanistan as pressure on the Kabul regime escalates.
Championship in… cynicism
Counting against the support of countries – such as e.g. Russia or China, against the background of an inexorable geopolitical rivalry – the Taliban appear to be attempting an extortionate instrumentalization of the civilian Afghan population.
It is on their “backs”, it is estimated, that they will seek to impose their own conditions for the provision of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan from now on.
At the center is considered to be the new fund created in Switzerland, with the transfer from the US of 3.5 billion dollars: that is, half of the “frozen” reserves of the Afghan Central Bank from August 2021.
According to Washington, the funds – which the Taliban do not have access to – will be allocated to support the Afghans and the fund will take over part of the obligations of the country’s Central Bank, such as repaying the Afghan debt and the cost of importing electricity into the country.
The Kabul regime instead accuses the US of “asset theft”.
