The comity of nations is unlikely to readily concur with the Taliban’s promise on women’s rights, media freedom, and amnesty for government officials in the group’s first media conference after taking charge of Kabul. It is hard not to wonder whether its social philosophy has been toned down since Sunday when it seized control of the seat of authority.
For the very obvious reason that its record in the past 30 years cannot inspire confidence. Without dwelling on specifics, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, has said that the rights of women will be protected within the framework of Islam. It is one thing to protect rights; quite another to safeguard women from theocratic forms of repression, when not punishment.
“I would like to assure the international community, including the United States, that nobody will be harmed,” Mujahid said. “We don’t want any internal or external enemies.” The Taliban has declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, trying to calm nerves across a tense capital city that only the day before witnessed chaos as thousands mobbed the city’s international airport in a desperate attempt to flee.
At least seven people died in Monday’s chaos, including several who clung to the sides of a US jet as it took off. US troops, who control the airport, have now restored order on the airfield, allowing evacuation flights to take off and land. Yet the Taliban’s pledge on inducting women into the government shall not be easy to digest.
China has said it is ready for “friendly relations” with the Taliban, while Russia and Iran have also made diplomatic overtures. President Biden spoke on Tuesday by telephone with Britain’s Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, regarding developments in Afghanistan, the White House said in a readout of the two leaders’ call.
It is a measure of the overwhelming crisis that Biden and Johnson have agreed to hold a meeting of leaders of the G7 group of industrialised democracies next week to discuss a “common strategy and approach” to providing “further humanitarian assistance and support for refugees and other vulnerable Afghans”.
The call was President Biden’s first with an allied world leader following the sudden fall of the Western-backed government in Kabul. About 600 British troops have joined several thousand US forces at the airport in Kabul to evacuate British nationals following the Taliban takeover of Kabul. Johnson “stressed the importance of not losing the gains made in Afghanistan over the last 20 years, of protecting ourselves against any emerging threat from terrorism and of continuing to support the people of Afghanistan”, a Downing Street spokesperson said.
Visuals of Taliban leaders, with weapons at the ready, do not inspire confidence. Nor even a scintilla of hope.