The US was poised to put the Taliban on the path to diplomatic recognition before the plan was scuttled by the Afghan rulers’ sudden about-face on a promise to educate girls, the Guardian says.
The group sparked international outrage and confusion on Wednesday when it withdrew from an agreement allowing teenage girls to attend secondary school, just a week after the Department of Education announced schools would open to all pupils.
US diplomats were optimistic that the Taliban would deliver on a promise ahead of this weekend’s Doha Forum in Qatar that a joint event was planned that would have kick-started the process of diplomatic recognition of the group.
A seat had been reserved for the Taliban at a panel at the Girls’ Education Forum, where a Taliban representative spoke to Afghan women activists about the role of women.
The sudden reversal belied the argument that a more “moderate” leadership now dominates the Taliban, and that optimism was further dampened this weekend when the group ordered Afghan TV stations to remove BBC news programs in Pashto, Persian and Uzbek.
In a statement on Sunday, the BBC said: “This is a worrying development at a time of uncertainty and turmoil for the people of Afghanistan. More than 6 million Afghans watch the BBC’s independent and impartial journalism on television every week
Western officials made it clear that unless the decision on girls’ education is reversed, diplomatic recognition will be impossible. The move will also make it more difficult for the international community to raise money for an international donors’ conference next week and will require stricter handling of money raised for it not to
Thomas West, the US special envoy for Afghanistan, said: “I was surprised by the turnaround last Wednesday and the world responded by condemning the move. It is primarily a betrayal of the Afghan people’s trust.
“I don’t think hope is lost yet. I am confident that we will see a reversal of this decision in the coming days.”
But West defended US involvement with the Taliban, saying a full diplomatic break would mean 40 million Afghans would be abandoned amid growing concerns over possible famine in the country.
“We are talking about the modalities of an urgent humanitarian response, the need for more than humanitarian response, a policy that not only admires the problem of a broken banking sector but finds ways to fix it, a professionalization of the central bank so the international financial community can start to trust him, we talk about terrorism and we talk about women’s rights.
“One of the first times we sat down in a formal setting in October, they had a request for us: ‘Please put our officers – 500,000 – back to work.’ Given the sector’s appeal to the international community, we thought education would be a logical place to start. We also had inquiries from them. First, in large parts of Afghanistan, women and girls were able to participate at all levels. Second, we wanted a monitoring mechanism, and third, a serious and rigorous curriculum. In the months that followed, the international community received the necessary reassurances and, more importantly, the Afghan people were told on March 23 that we would allow girls to go to secondary school, and that did not happen.”
Hosna Jalil, a former interior minister, was among many Afghan women in Doha who have claimed the Taliban are failing to rein in the demand for education. She said the last 20 years have not been wasted but have left a positive legacy. “We have supported a generation, two-thirds of the population, that knows what a better life looks like. That’s why we won’t give up. They are loud, they believe in freedom and democracy.”
Malala Yousafzai, who received the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize for her fight for the right of all children to an education, told the forum that times have changed since the Taliban first banned girls’ education in 1996.
“It’s a lot harder this time around – that’s because women have seen what it means to be educated, what it means to be empowered. This time it will be much more difficult for the Taliban to uphold the ban on girls’ education. You learn in hiding. They protest in the streets. This ban will not last forever. They waited outside the school gate in their uniforms and cried. Striving for education is the duty of every Muslim,” she said.
Dalia Fahmhy, an Afghan political science professor, said in 1999 that no girls attended secondary schools. “Within 15 years later there were 3.7 million girls. During that time, thousands of women became entrepreneurs. This cannot be restricted. We live in the digital age and 68% have cell phones and 22% are connected to each other and the world. This cannot be restricted. 27% of Parliament were women.”