New Afghanistan, Same Old Taliban
New Afghanistan, Same Old Taliban
A Profoundly Changed Country Will Challenge the Hard-liners
By Rina Amiri
November 9, 2021
The international community reacted to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15 by freezing $9 billion of Afghan central bank assets and suspending the foreign aid that had funded 75 percent of Afghanistan’s public spending. Major donors—including the European Union and the United States—view aid as one of the few sources of leverage against the Taliban. They insist that these funds will not be released until the Taliban deliver on their commitments to establish an inclusive government, protect the rights of all Afghans, and sever ties with terrorist groups.
The Taliban in turn have doubled down on their hard-line policies, insisting that they have won the war and that the West must recognize it. They have drastically curtailed women’s rights, eliminating the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and reinstating the Ministry for Vice and Virtue, which enforced a severe interpretation of Islamic law under the last Taliban regime. With the second round of appointments to Afghanistan’s interim government on September 21, the Taliban increased the number of senior officials on the United Nations terrorism sanctions list from 18 to 21. While Tajiks, Uzbeks, and a Hazara were named deputy ministers, slightly improving minority representation, women and members of the previous government were again excluded. Most female public-sector employees are still prohibited from returning to work, and girls in much of the country have yet to return to secondary school.
Yet these measures reflect more than simply a refusal to accede to the demands of the United States and much of the rest of the international community; they also reflect a refusal to acknowledge the reality that contemporary Afghanistan is a fundamentally different country from the one the Taliban governed until 2001. This new Afghanistan poses both a profound challenge to the Taliban—and an opportunity for the United States and its partners to rethink their approach.
A Profoundly Changed Country Will Challenge the Hard-liners
By Rina Amiri
November 9, 2021
The international community reacted to the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15 by freezing $9 billion of Afghan central bank assets and suspending the foreign aid that had funded 75 percent of Afghanistan’s public spending. Major donors—including the European Union and the United States—view aid as one of the few sources of leverage against the Taliban. They insist that these funds will not be released until the Taliban deliver on their commitments to establish an inclusive government, protect the rights of all Afghans, and sever ties with terrorist groups.
The Taliban in turn have doubled down on their hard-line policies, insisting that they have won the war and that the West must recognize it. They have drastically curtailed women’s rights, eliminating the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and reinstating the Ministry for Vice and Virtue, which enforced a severe interpretation of Islamic law under the last Taliban regime. With the second round of appointments to Afghanistan’s interim government on September 21, the Taliban increased the number of senior officials on the United Nations terrorism sanctions list from 18 to 21. While Tajiks, Uzbeks, and a Hazara were named deputy ministers, slightly improving minority representation, women and members of the previous government were again excluded. Most female public-sector employees are still prohibited from returning to work, and girls in much of the country have yet to return to secondary school.
Yet these measures reflect more than simply a refusal to accede to the demands of the United States and much of the rest of the international community; they also reflect a refusal to acknowledge the reality that contemporary Afghanistan is a fundamentally different country from the one the Taliban governed until 2001. This new Afghanistan poses both a profound challenge to the Taliban—and an opportunity for the United States and its partners to rethink their approach.
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