The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship Needs a Rethink

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Taliban leader Mullah Baradar with Pakistan’s ISI Chief Faiz Hameed

Bloomberg: Taliban leaders would not hold power in Kabul today if not for Pakistani support. The haven that Taliban commanders, their families and their fighters received within Pakistan allowed the insurgents — devastated and scattered by the initial U.S. invasion in 2001 — to rebuild their ranks. For nearly two decades, elements within the Pakistani military provided money, training and logistical support to the Taliban, even as Pakistan pocketed more than $33 billion in American aid. Pakistani leaders have hardly bothered to disguise their satisfaction at the Taliban victory. Click here to read more (external link).

Roads Into Panjshir Reopen, Telecom Services Resume

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Tolo News: Some Panjshir residents said “90 percent” of locals left their homes and fled to the mountains following the clashes between the Taliban and the Resistance Front forces in the past weeks, and they face serious issues.  “An economic crisis has emerged, people are struggling with economic problems,” a resident said. “From 100 percent, only 10 percent of people stayed, and the rest have left their houses,” a Panjshir resident said. Click here to read more (external link).

Media Watchdog Denounces Escalating Attacks On Journalists In Taliban-Led Afghanistan

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Journalists beaten by Taliban

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 17, 2021

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Taliban’s “mounting attacks” on press freedoms with at least 153 media organizations being forced to cease operations as the hard-line Islamist group solidifies its rule over the country.

In a statement on September 17, the world’s largest organization of journalists also cited women journalists being barred from working, telecommunication shutdowns, and “ever-increasing threats and violence” toward media workers.

The Brussels-based group said more than 7,000 media workers had been affected by the Taliban takeover, “with many prevented from working, in hiding and fearful for their lives and those of their families.”

“I believe what we will see emerge is an official media — a Taliban media — and no women. All other journalists will just disappear,” said IFJ Secretary-General Anthony Bellanger.

The statement cited “escalating” reports of Taliban militants detaining journalists, seizing their equipment, and subjecting them to torture or beatings.

There has been growing fear that the government installed by the Taliban after it gained control of most of the war-torn country a month ago will return to the brutal rule the group employed during its first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban has sought to reassure the international community, promising inclusiveness and a general amnesty for former opponents, but many Afghans remain deeply fearful, especially after the group formed an all-male government led by hard-line veterans, banned protests, and cracked down on demonstrators and journalists.

The Taliban-led government has also instructed telecommunications providers to cut Internet and mobile service in areas of Kabul, according to the IFJ.

It said there were also serious concerns for journalists’ safety after the Taliban “released some 1,000 serious criminals from prisons, who are now threatening reporters who covered their arrests and detention.”

The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has urged the Taliban to immediately “cease the use of force towards, and the arbitrary detention of, those exercising their right to peaceful assembly and the journalists covering the protests.”

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said “incidents involving media personnel have been on the rise in both Kabul and provincial cities,” with Afghan journalists being “harassed by the Taliban, arrested, and beaten with cables.”

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

SCO Leaders Call For Increased Afghan Aid, Unfreezing Of Assets

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By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service
September 17, 2021

Leaders of the Russia- and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) have urged the world to unfreeze Afghanistan’s assets and boost assistance to the war-torn nation as it teeters on the brink of crisis following the Taliban’s return to power last month.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, told a CSTO summit in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on September 17 that failure to provide necessary support to Afghanistan could allow terrorism and drugs to flourish while pushing the country into a full-blown humanitarian crisis — a perspective that has raised alarm of the potential for tens of thousands of refugees to pour over the border.

Founded 20 years ago to combat what it calls the “three evils” of separatism, extremism, and terrorism, the Eurasian security bloc initially consisted of China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan before India and Pakistan joined in 2017.

In Dushanbe, CSTO leaders also said they were beginning the process of accepting Iran into the organization.

Since Taliban militants swept into Kabul on August 15, some $9 billion in foreign reserves of Afghanistan’s central bank have been frozen — most of it held in the United States.

The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, foreign governments, and other donors have suspended payments to Afghanistan, while ordinary bank transfers to individuals in the country also have been blocked, leaving ordinary Afghans reeling from rocketing inflation, rising poverty, cash shortages, a plummeting currency, and rising unemployment.

The Biden administration has said that any central-bank assets the Afghan government has in the United States will not be made available to the Taliban for the time being.

Even before Taliban takeover, Afghanistan’s economy was extremely fragile. Propped up for 20 years by foreign aid, about 40 percent of Afghanistan’s gross domestic product was the result of international assistance.

Addressing the SCO summit via video link, Putin insisted that the organization should do its “utmost” to prevent the threats of “terrorism, drug trafficking, and religious extremism” emanating from Afghanistan.

He added that the security bloc should “use its potential” to “stimulate the new Afghan authorities” in fulfilling their promises on normalizing life and bringing security in Afghanistan.

“I think it also makes sense to work with the United States [and] other Western countries for a gradual unfreezing of Afghanistan’s reserves and restoring programs through the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund,” he added while blaming Washington in large part for the current situation, saying it should bear the “main part” of the expenses related to the rebuilding process.

Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, whose country borders Afghanistan, called for efforts to prevent the rise of extremism in Afghanistan, saying that unfreezing the assets kept in foreign banks could help achieve these goals by facilitating dialogue with the Taliban-led government in Kabul.

China’s Xi said SCO member nations should help to drive a smooth transition in Afghanistan and assist it in developing an inclusive political structure that would see it follow moderate internal and external policies, according to Chinese state media.

Beijing has called on the Taliban to hold to its pledge to restrain militants seeking independence for the northwestern region of Xinjiang.

Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan called for economic support for Afghanistan to “prevent a humanitarian crisis and an economic meltdown.”

“We must remember that the previous government depended heavily on foreign aid and its removal could lead to economic collapse,” Khan said, adding that Islamabad thinks that “positive engagement of the international community with Afghanistan is extremely important.”

Pakistan has been accused of supporting the group as it battled the U.S.-backed government in Kabul for 20 years — a charge denied by Islamabad.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon called for “bolstering the capability of the SCO’s regional anti-terrorist structure and stepping up the interaction of our countries’ law enforcement agencies and special services” in order to counter the “challenges and threats” emanating from neighboring Afghanistan.

Rahmon expressed serious concern over the situation in Panjshir Valley, the last pocket of resistance to the Taliban’s takeover, reiterating his call for the international community to provide emergency assistance to the province, which he said has been under a “complete [Taliban] blockade for about two months.”

Kazakhstan’s President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev proposed the organization of a hub in the southeastern Kazakh city of Almaty for international aid to Afghanistan.

Afghanistan also holds observer status at the SCO, but Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier this week that the Taliban had not been invited to observe proceedings in the Tajik capital.

The SCO summit came a day after leaders of another regional security bloc — the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) — also held talks in Tajikistan’s capital.

The two days of talks come as Moscow and Beijing move to assert themselves as key players in the region following the rapid collapse of the Western-backed government in Kabul at the end of a 20-year U.S.-led military mission in Afghanistan.

Both security groupings have been viewed as Moscow’s and Beijing’s counters to U.S. geopolitical dominance.

Meanwhile, Italy’s Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio said in an interview published on September 17 that an ad-hoc summit of the Group of 20 major economies to discuss Afghanistan will be held after the United Nations Assembly in New York ends on September 30.

Di Maio told daily la Repubblica that Rome, which holds the rotating G20 presidency this year, has asked for agencies of the United Nations and nonprofit organizations active in Afghanistan to be involved in the talks.

With reporting by Reuters, TASS, and AFP

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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‘Buried’ Dreams: Afghan Runner Challenges Taliban Claim That Uniforms Violate Islamic Norms

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By Farangis Najibullah
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
September 16, 2021

A championship runner in Kabul says the uniforms she and other Afghan sportswomen wore in domestic and international competitions fully covered their bodies and didn’t violate the Islamic hijab norms as the Taliban claims.

The 24-year-old professional athlete, whose name is being withheld for her protection, was responding to a senior Taliban official saying this week that Afghan women won’t be allowed to play “the kind of sports where they get exposed” now that the hard-line Islamist group controls most of the country.

“During both trainings and competitions, we wore head scarves, long-sleeved tops, and long sweatpants, and over the pants we wore a skirt,” said the runner.

She insists she and her teammates always made sure their bodies weren’t exposed during either trainings or competitions.

“I’ve never removed my head scarf in any competition, anywhere in the world, and the foreign event organizers never objected. They respected it as our choice,” she told RFE/RL.

The Taliban government that was announced earlier this month hasn’t publicly stated its policy on the future of women’s sports.

On September 14, Bashir Ahmad Rustamzai, the country’s new director general for sports, said senior Taliban leaders were still deciding on the matter.

But a deputy head of the Taliban’s cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, recently said Afghan women might not be allowed to play sports because their bodies would show during competitions.

“In cricket and other sports, women will not get an Islamic dress code. It is obvious that they will get exposed and will not follow the dress code, and Islam does not allow that,” Wasiq said.

The comment bespeaks the Taliban’s ultraconservative interpretation of Islamic standards of modesty as imposed on women in public or in the presence of men outside the immediate family.

The Kabuli runner, who took up athletics after her father took her to a sports center at the age of 10, says she has “buried” her dreams and has no hope of being allowed to return to sports ever again.

“What I see ahead is darkness,” she told RFE/RL on September 15, one month after the UN-backed government’s leadership fled as foreign troops withdrew and Taliban fighters marched into the capital. “I’m scared for my safety and the safety of my family. I don’t want to put them in danger by trying to continue my career.”

But Wasiq’s comment also adds to concerns over the Taliban’s general stance on women’s rights and freedoms in Afghanistan, most of which were sharply curbed during the group’s harsh reign in 1996-2001.

“The Taliban are preventing working women from returning to their regular office jobs, so I don’t think they would allow women taking part in competitions in stadiums in front of crowds,” the runner said.

Despite a lack of modern sports facilities at her club, and disapproving glances from conservative neighbors, the runner said she was happy doing what she and her family liked.

But she hasn’t left her home since the Taliban swept back into power on August 15, two weeks before the last of the U.S.-led evacuation flights took off from Kabul’s international airport.

She also worked as a coach, an occupation she had been planning on for her future once she retired from competition.

In her career, she won multiple gold, silver, and bronze medals in domestic competitions. She has also represented Afghanistan in competitions in Iran, Kazakhstan, and other countries.

She and her teammates returned to Kabul from a trip abroad just days before the Western-backed government collapsed and the Taliban entered Kabul.

Asked if she had received any specific threats from the Taliban, the young woman said she feels there is a climate of fear in general for all career women in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

“My photos with my name are hanging there in the Sports and Olympic Committee, where new Taliban officials are sitting right now,” the woman said. “I fear they’ll come after me.”

Dozens of professional Afghan athletes have left the country since the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul. This week, a group of girls who played for Afghanistan’s junior national soccer team crossed the border into Pakistan along with their coaches and family members.

The young athletes had reportedly sent a letter to Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, asking him for permission to enter the country. The players claimed that they were under “grave threat” from the Taliban.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan’s Cricket Board organized a domestic competition among men’s teams in early September before a packed crowd at Kabul’s cricket stadium — marking the first-ever sports event under Taliban rule.

Copyright (c) 2021. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Afghanistan envoys marooned abroad after Taliban’s sudden return

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Al Jazeera: The Taliban’s abrupt return to power has left hundreds of Afghan diplomats overseas in limbo: running out of money to keep missions operating, fearful for families back home and desperate to secure refuge abroad. “I am literally begging. Diplomats are willing to become refugees,”… Click here to read more (external link).