Just when the Chinese foreign minster’s surprise, unannounced trip to Kabul filled international headlines and brought hopes of greater international engagement with the troubled country, the Taliban leadership made its own case for recognition much weaker by going back on its word once again about the matter of female education; among so many other things. It turns out that barely hours after letting girls to back to school, the permission was suddenly revoked without any explanation. And the thousands of girls across the country who had finally rushed to their classrooms had to head back home with tears in their eyes. The Taliban haven not yet commented on this strange U-turn, except some junior officials saying that this decision came directly from Kandahar, which means the high-command issued it.
This is very troubling for at least two very important reasons. One, why did the Taliban give their word about just such things when they clearly had no intention of honouring it? It couldn’t just be the haste to get the Americans out since they were clearly wining the war; and if they had waited for 20 years, surely they could wait out a few more months without even hinting at a compromise on their core values. Yet they first agreed to a number of things, of which women’s rights and female education were two very prominent points, and then just chose not to honour their own promise.
And two, why drag religion into this? There are many Muslim countries in the world, and none of them have this particular issues. Why can’t these countries, or outfits like OIC, take up such matters very seriously and solve them once and for all? How long must one group that can take power in just one country misrepresent a religion that is professed by a billion-and-a-half people across the world?
The Taliban’s policies are not just harming Afghanistan’s citizens, they’re also not doing the government in Kabul, or the great religion of Islam, any favours. If Afghanistan’s friends, of which Pakistan is clearly the most prominent one right now, are not advising them very strongly on this point, they are not helping the government Kabul either. *
Source: Daily Times Editorial