US Maintains Taliban Engagement, Names Obstacles to Normalization

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
September 12, 2023

The Taliban’s quest for normalization of relations with the international community, which includes relief from terrorism sanctions and the release of Afghan financial assets, faces significant obstacles due to the regime’s oppressive policies toward women, ongoing security threats, and the group’s failure to form an inclusive government, according to a top U.S. official.

Despite the Taliban holding sway over all of Afghanistan for more than two years, no country has officially recognized their self-proclaimed Islamic Emirate.

Thomas West, U.S. special representative for Afghanistan, underscored the reasons behind the diplomatic standoff during a Tuesday event at the Stimson Center, a nonpartisan think tank in Washington.

“Steps toward normalization, I think, are not going to be possible. And I think there will remain remarkable unity among the international community until and unless we see a significant change in their [Taliban] treatment of the population,” West said.

West said the United States was not leading the global consensus for nonrecognition but has a set of conditions that are unfulfilled by the Taliban.

“First, the Taliban need to fundamentally fulfill their security obligations,” West said, adding that while al-Qaida had been reduced to a “historic nadir” since it moved to Afghanistan from Sudan in 1996, concerns persist about other terror groups still operating in the landlocked country.

West also highlighted the necessity for the Taliban to establish a more inclusive political system and guarantee women’s rights to education and work as two additional conditions for normal relations with the international community.

The Taliban have defied widespread calls for a reversal of their bans on women, while maintaining that their interim government is inclusive enough.

Change from within

Thus far, Washington has rebuffed calls from some Afghan groups that seek assistance in toppling the Taliban regime.

West said meaningful reforms and changes in the war-ravaged nation should originate from within Afghanistan rather than being imposed through external pressure.

“If a change has to occur on allowing women to return to secondary schools, girls’ secondary schools, and then to university, it’s going to come from inside the country. It is not going to come because I asked for it. … It will be an internal matter,” he said.

However, human rights organizations continue to advocate for increased international pressure on the Taliban, including classifying Taliban-run Afghanistan as a gender-apartheid regime and prosecuting Taliban leaders for crimes against humanity.

West acknowledged the active role played by several majority Muslim countries, such as Qatar and Indonesia, as well as the Organization for Islamic Cooperation (OIC), in engaging the Taliban on women’s rights issues.

Last month, an OIC delegation of Islamic scholars from some Muslim-majority countries visited Afghanistan to try to persuade Taliban officials to lift the ban on women’s secondary education and work.

The group, however, has shown no signs of relenting.

While the Taliban leadership has remained unbending in the face of domestic and international appeals for women’s rights and political inclusivity, they appear to have acknowledged to some extent the counterterrorism demands put forth by the United States.

“The Taliban understand that they need to fulfill their security commitments in order to protect their own sovereignty. So, they don’t want the United States to take action on Afghan soil,” said West.

Pashtunization: Taliban Have Detained Two Bamiyan Residents Over Resisting To Give Their Lands To Kuchi Nomads

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8am: Sources informed the Hasht-e Subh Daily on Tuesday, 12 September, that Abdullah Sarhadi, the Taliban governor of Bamiyan province, has imprisoned two individuals from the Pashta-e Gharghari village because they did not hand over their land to the Kuchi nomads. This comes after last year when the Taliban’s Conflict Resolution Commission had warned the residents of Rashk to hand over their lands to the Kuchi nomads and leave the region themselves. Click here to read more (external link).

Saudis, Taliban Follow Different Paths on Women’s Work, Education

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
September 12, 2023

Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia are known for their Shariah-based legal systems and authoritarian ways of governance. But the two Islamist governments are on divergent paths regarding women’s work and education.

In the Saudi kingdom, where until a few years ago women were deprived of many social rights and freedoms, the women’s employment rate has surged to 37%, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

In the high-tech industry, Saudi women’s participation has gone up so much that recently U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Michael Ratney humorously suggested that U.S. tech hub Silicon Valley could take inspiration from Saudi Arabia’s efforts to foster female entrepreneurship.

“In the tech sector in Saudi Arabia, a third of the workforce is women — which as I understand it is higher than Silicon Valley,” Ratney said at an event in July.

The progress extends beyond the tech industry, with women securing positions in government and private companies and leading startups at unprecedented rates. Furthermore, literacy among young Saudi women 15 to 24 years of age has reached 99%, marking a significant milestone. In May, astronaut Rayyanah Barnawi became the first Arab woman in history to travel into space.

The kingdom also has appointed five female ambassadors, including Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud, who represents Saudi Arabia in the United States.

“Today in the kingdom, we have more women receiving advanced degrees than men,” Al Saud said at an event in July jointly organized by the nonpartisan Atlantic Council and Georgetown University in Washington.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who has been criticized in the past for his human rights violations, is credited with spearheading a reformist and developmental agenda that includes greater rights and opportunities for women.

Widely referred to as an authoritarian monarchy, Saudi Arabia still has no female ministers in the government or a woman in the royal court where the Saudi royal family decides nearly all of the kingdom’s affairs.

But even there, change is expected.

“There are several women in leadership positions already, and I only expect it to increase with time,” Sussan Saikali, a research associate at Arab Gulf States Institute, told VOA.

“The Saudi government has removed several laws that were previously restricting women’s ability to work in certain sectors, while also passing several anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws,” she said.

Taliban’s shariah

Afghanistan, meanwhile, has witnessed a regression in women’s access to fundamental human rights and freedoms under the Taliban regime, including setbacks in education and employment, purportedly based on Islamic and cultural justifications.

Habiba Sarabi, Afghanistan’s former minister of women’s affairs, believes the Taliban’s extremist ideology stems from decades of internationalization of Islamic extremism sponsored by oil-rich Gulf monarchies, chiefly the Saudis.

“For too long, the Gulf countries invested heavily in Islamic extremism, but now they have realized their mistakes and have started pursuing a different civilizational path,” Sarabi told VOA.

Many Islamic organizations, countries and experts have objected to the Taliban’s misogynistic policies, calling them inconsistent with Islamic principles and values.

The Taliban, like Saudi Arabia, operate under an unelected supreme leader who wields unchecked power, accountable only to a divine authority.

“The man [Taliban supreme leader] in Kandahar thinks he is the representative of God and he is not bound by human laws,” Sarabi said.

Taliban officials say they have restored women’s Islamic rights to decency and seclusion, a statement met with skepticism by many Islamic scholars.

“We should not heed those people [countries] that chant for women’s education but do not allow education for women wearing the hijab,” Sheikh Mohammad Khalid, the Taliban’s minister for the promotion of Islamic virtues and the prevention of vice, told a gathering of male tribal elders on Tuesday.

Saudi influence

Riyadh has not recognized the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government but has maintained contact with Taliban officials, most of whom travel to Saudi Arabia annually for the Islamic pilgrimage, Hajj.

During Hajj in June, Taliban Defense Minister Yaqub Mujahid was seen greeting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is credited for backing women’s rights in his country. But it is not clear if he advised Yaqub about women’s rights in Islam. Yaqub is the son of the late Mullah Omar, one of the Taliban’s founding leaders, who is still widely revered among Taliban leaders.

“I don’t necessarily think we can predict one country’s actions by the other. Countries like Afghanistan have a wholly different system than Saudi Arabia, despite sharing a religion,” Saikali said.

Sarabi, the former Afghan minister, said the Saudis and other Gulf monarchies like Qatar have extensive religious, economic and political influence over the Taliban that could sway the group into softening its harsh policies on women.

U.S. officials, recognizing the Taliban’s defiance of Western countries, have urged Saudi Arabia and other Muslim-majority nations to advocate for women’s rights within Afghanistan.

Rina Amiri, U.S. special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights — a role not seen in other countries dealing with the Taliban — has urged Muslim states to prevent a normalization of the Taliban’s misogyny.

After meeting officials from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in July, Amiri wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, about the “dangerous precedent” set by the extreme repression of Afghan women and girls.

In February, the Saudis closed their embassy in Kabul, reportedly over security concerns. The kingdom has donated $1.6 million to the $3.2 billion the United Nations has sought for a humanitarian response in Afghanistan this year.

During her July speech in Washington, Reema said it was essential for the world to invest in women’s empowerment to build more inclusive and equitable societies. She particularly emphasized the importance of education for women.

“Education and training help level the playing field. It gives women equal footing in the workplace and fosters not only gender equality but equity,” she said.

Missing from her remarks was Afghanistan.

Hundreds Arrested In New Pakistani Crackdown On Afghan Refugees

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RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal
RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
September 12, 2023

Police in the southern Pakistani province of Sindh have arrested more than 250 Afghan refugees and migrants as part of a new crackdown aimed at repatriating undocumented Afghans.

Most of the arrests and detentions have occurred in Karachi since September 11. The seaport is the capital of Sindh and also serves as the key industrial and trade hub for the Muslim nation.

“The government has directed the police and other [law enforcement] organizations to arrest Afghans living illegally in Sindh and elsewhere in the country,” Kamran Tissori, the governor of Sindh, told journalists on September 11.

Afghan refugees and Pakistani human rights campaigner say the arrests are aimed at harassing mostly impoverished Afghans who cannot return to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan because of security fears or economic reasons.

“The mass arrest of Afghan refugees is based on their racial profiling,” Muniza Kakar, a lawyer who has voluntarily represented Afghan refugees arrested in Karachi, wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

Kakar said that many of the detained Afghans possessed cards issued by the Pakistani government identifying them as Afghans.

“Urgent action needed to protect refugee rights,” she wrote.

Afghan refugees in Pakistan complain of harassment and a lack of information and help in completing the paperwork needed for extending their stay in the country.

“After my Pakistani visa ended in July, I repeatedly applied to extend it but the government, unfortunately, has not processed it,” said one such refugee, who said his name was Ahmad.

“The Pakistani government announcement has created huge pressure and most of us now face mental health problems,” he told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi.

The Pakistani government issued Proof of Registration cards for more than 1 million Afghans that expired on June 30.

Qaisar Afridi, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), told Radio Mashaal that Islamabad has so far refused to extend the deadline.

“I am extremely afraid of being arrested whenever I go to the market to buy groceries,” said Aimal Habibi, an Afghan refugee in Sindh.

Since the early 1980s, Pakistan has hosted one of the largest refugee populations in the world.

But it has not signed the 1951 UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It also is not a signatory of the 1967 protocol, which broadens the definition of who can be considered a refugee.

Islamabad currently hosts about 1.4 million documented Afghan refugees. An equal number of undocumented Afghans are estimated to also be living in the country.

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Local Uprising Commander Killed by Taliban in Takhar Province

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8am: According to these sources, Taliban intelligence carried out the killing of a Local Uprising commander named Hayatullah using gunfire on Tuesday, September 12th. Hayatullah held the position of commander among the residents of Moghol-Qeshlaq village in Badam Darah, located in the city of Taliqan. Click here to read more (external link).

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Crimes against women in Afghanistan condemned by UN Human Rights Council

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Khaama: On the first day of the fifty-fourth session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Afghanistan was the main topic of discussion. Farzana Abbasi, a human rights researcher focusing on Afghanistan, said during this session that some of the actions by the Taliban administration in Afghanistan against women are considered examples of crimes against humanity. Ms Abbasi emphasized in her statement that women have been systematically removed from public spaces over the past two years, losing their fundamental freedoms. She further pointed out that human rights observers have found evidence of female rights activists arbitrarily detained and tortured by the Taliban regime. Click here to read more (external link).

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Afghan fitness athlete wins gold in Flex Pro Competition

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Khaama: Ali Bilal, an Afghan fitness athlete, won the championship medal in the Flex Pro competition. He secured the gold medal in the men’s physique category at this competition held in Milan, Italy, as the official Flex Pro competition website reported. Ali Bilal is set to participate in the Mr. Olympia competition, the most significant event in the world of bodybuilding and fitness, which will take place from November 2 to 5 in Orlando, Florida, USA. In the previous year’s Mr. Olympia competition, he was ninth among 15 athletes. Click here to read more (external link).

Other Sports News

On Anniversary of 9/11 Attacks, US Says Al-Qaida in Afghanistan all but Dead

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Jeff Seldin
VOA News
September 11, 2023

WASHINGTON — More than two decades after al-Qaida operatives slammed passenger jets into New York’s World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania, America’s war on terror has left the terror group practically impotent, unable to strike the U.S. homeland, according to the latest U.S. intelligence assessment.

“Al-Qaida is at its historical nadir in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and its revival is unlikely,” National Counterterrorism Center Director Christy Abizaid said in a statement marking the 22nd anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.

“It has lost target access, leadership talent, group cohesion, rank-and-file commitment, and an accommodating local environment,” Abizaid added, calling the degradation of al-Qaida’s core an “example of what the United States and its allies and partners have achieved in the years since those terrible attacks.”

The assessment also aligns with previous statements by other top-ranking U.S. officials.

In March, the Department of Homeland Security’s counterterrorism coordinator said another September 11th-style attack on the U.S. would be “almost inconceivable.”

And this past June, a senior administration official told VOA that even the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 has failed to rejuvenate the terror group.

Al-Qaida “simply has not reconstituted a presence in Afghanistan,” the official told VOA, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the latest U.S. intelligence.

Only not everyone is as optimistic as the U.S. about the downfall of al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

A June report by the United Nations, based on member state intelligence, warned that Afghanistan has again become a haven for al-Qaida, which has expanded its footprint from just several dozen members to as many as 60 senior officials, in addition to some 400 fighters.

The U.N. report further warned that al-Qaida has established training camps in at least five provinces and safe houses in another four.

U.S. officials who spoke to VOA at the time described the U.N. assessment as “out of whack” and insisted that the military and intelligence agencies have the right capabilities in place to see any potential al-Qaida revival.

Since then, other senior U.S. officials have similarly rejected the idea that al-Qaida, even under the Taliban, has been able to reestablish a foothold.

“Remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al-Qaida would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in response to a question on Afghanistan in July.

“What’s happening now? What’s going on?” Biden said at the time. “Read your press. I was right.”

Some analysts, though, are skeptical of sounding the death knell for al-Qaida in Afghanistan, even if the terror group may not be currently capable of launching the type of spectacular attacks that first gained it notoriety.

“Even if the threat from al-Qaida now is not as obvious, or not as salient as it once was a decade and a half ago, it hasn’t gone away completely,” said Bruce Hoffman, a senior fellow for counterterrorism and homeland security at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“Al-Qaida sees its struggle as divinely ordained, as commanded by their deity and therefore, it’s not for mere mortal men to lay down their arms and stop fighting,” Hoffman told VOA. “They now have the opportunity in Afghanistan with the Taliban in power to regroup and rebuild.”

Retired U.S. General David Petraeus, who served as the commander of U.S. forces in South Asia and then as director of the CIA, likewise told VOA that al-Qaida should not be underestimated.

“They don’t have a kind of international reach yet, similar to what al-Qaida eventually developed, of course, when they carried out the 9/11 attacks,” Petraeus said.

“That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t keep a very close eye on them,” he said, adding, “I’m very confident that we are tracking to the extent that we can.”

Yet even top U.S. military officials concede the ability to track al-Qaida in Afghanistan, along with its rival, the Islamic State Khorasan Province, is not what it once was.

“Our intelligence is degraded,” the commander of U.S. Central Command, General Michael “Erik” Kurilla, told lawmakers in March on the impact of the U.S. withdrawal on counterterrorism efforts.

“I believe we can see the broad contours of an attack [plot],” he said. “Sometimes, we lack the granularity to see the full picture.”

In her statement marking the anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks, the National Counterterrorism Center’s Abizaid cautioned that despite the progress against al-Qaida and other groups, “The threat of terrorism is not gone.”

“Every week, threat-related intelligence lands on my desk,” Abizaid said. “In the face of a persistent terrorism challenge, the United States Government must sustain a nimble, action-oriented counterterrorism posture, even as other priorities take center stage.”

VOA’s Afghan Service contributed to this report.

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Pakistan Warns Afghan Taliban Not to Build Illegal Border Structures

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Ayaz Gul
VOA News
September 11, 2023

ISLAMABAD — Pakistan on Monday defended its decision to close the main border crossing with landlocked Afghanistan, saying Taliban authorities were trying to build “unlawful structures” on its territory and “resorted to indiscriminate firing” when challenged.

Traffic through the busy historic Torkham transit point for trade and travelers was suspended last Wednesday after border security forces exchanged fire, killing a Taliban guard and a civilian on the Afghan side.

“Pakistan cannot accept the construction of any structures by [the Afghan government] inside its territory since these violate its sovereignty,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Monday.

She responded to a Taliban Foreign Ministry statement accusing Pakistani forces of opening fire on Afghan forces while they were doing “repair work on an old security post constructed several years ago.”

Sunday’s Taliban statement warned that the border closure could “adversely affect” relations between the two countries.

“On 6th September, instead of a peaceful resolution, Afghan troops resorted to indiscriminate firing, targeting Pakistan military posts, damaging the infrastructure at the Torkham Border Terminal, and putting the lives of both Pakistani and Afghan civilians at risk when they were stopped from erecting such unlawful structures,” said Baloch in a statement.

“Such unprovoked and indiscriminate firing on Pakistani border posts cannot be justified under any circumstances,” she said.

The Torkham standoff has stranded hundreds of trucks transporting commercial goods, mostly Afghan fruits and vegetables, and thousands of travelers on both sides.

The nearly 2,600-kilometer has long been a source of bilateral tensions because Afghanistan disputes the century-old British colonial-era demarcation. Islamabad rejects Kabul’s objections, saying Pakistan inherited the international border after gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

Rising cross-border terror

Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Baloch suggested Monday that the Torkham gate closure also resulted from the rising cross-border attacks against her country by anti-Pakistan militants sheltering in Afghanistan.

She referred to leaders and fighters of the banned Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP, operating out of Afghan soil.

TTP is listed as a global terrorist organization by the United States and the United Nations. It is a known offshoot and close ally of the Afghan Taliban.

“These elements are enjoying sanctuaries inside Afghanistan, as confirmed by the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team in its latest report,” she said.

“We expect the Afghan interim authorities to be mindful of Pakistan’s concerns, respect the territorial integrity of Pakistan, and ensure that the Afghan territory is not used as a launching pad for terrorist attacks against Pakistan,” said Baloch.

The U.N. report in question found that TTP has been “gaining momentum in its operations against Pakistan and aspires to regain control of territory within the country.” It noted that at least 4,000 TTP operatives are active on Afghan soil and warned the group could become a regional threat if it continues to have safe operating base in Afghanistan.

The Afghan Taliban deny they allow the use of Afghan soil to threaten Pakistan or other countries, calling TTP-led violence an internal matter for the neighboring country.

Pakistani officials and residents said Afghan Taliban fighters also joined TTP in launching last week’s massive assault against two security outposts close to the Afghan border in the northern Chitral district.

Islamabad claims it has also shared evidence and bodies of several Afghan assailants killed in retaliatory counterterrorism actions by the Pakistani security forces.

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