No recognition of the regime without Taliban showing reforms
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It may still be a long way to go for the Taliban regime to win formal recognition but the latest interaction with the international community gives the conservative Islamic dispensation some legitimacy. Last week’s meeting in Oslo has led to further easing of restrictions on the de facto Afghan government. The United States has infused some liquidity to save the economy from complete collapse and to allow the Taliban administration to pay for imports.
But for formal recognition, the Taliban need to do more to address some key concerns on human and women’s rights and ensure a representative political setup in the country. While the Taliban have promised to reopen girls’ schools in the next few months and allow women to work, recent incidents of the crackdown on women demonstrators do not help mitigate the apprehensions of the international community.
Since taking over last August, the Taliban have imposed a harsh rule in the war battered country banning women from many jobs outside the health and education fields and restricting their access to education beyond sixth grade. It may not be a complete return to the retrogressive order imposed under the previous Taliban rule in 1990’s, yet the restrictions have pushed the country backward. The latest restrictions by the Taliban administration on women traveling without male escorts has further highlighted concerns.
Although the meeting between the Western diplomats and the Taliban representatives in Norway’s capital were mainly focused on Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, which has escalated drastically after the Taliban takeover, other issues too came under discussion. The Taliban delegation led by acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi held talks with the envoys of the United States and some major Western nations.
During the three day conclave, the two sides also met separately with the members of Afghan civil society including women rights groups. It was the first such deliberations since the return of Taliban rule. But the Oslo meeting was not without controversy. Some Afghan and human rights groups decried it, maintaining that such official level meetings legitimize Taliban rule and its retrogressive actions.
A statement by a senior member of the Taliban delegation that the meeting with Western officials was a “step to legitimize the Afghan government,” added to the controversy. He hoped that such interactions could help US and European nations to “erase the wrong picture of the Afghan government.”
The Western envoys made it clear that their meetings with the Taliban in no way implied any sense of official recognition or legitimization of the interim Taliban government.
Zahid Hussain
Notwithstanding this optimism, the pressure of the international community on the Taliban does not seem to be easing. The Western envoys made it clear that their meetings with the Taliban in no way implied any sense of official recognition or legitimization of the interim Taliban government.
While welcoming the Taliban’s public pledges that all women and girls can access schools at all levels when schools across the country reopen in March, the envoys emphasized the need for practical, budgetary and technical preparations to ensure this becomes a reality.
While highlighting the urgency in addressing the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and the measures needed to be taken for smooth delivery of aid, the participants also stressed the importance of removing the existing obstacles. The UN has warned that as many as one million Afghan children are in danger of starving and most of the country’s 38 million people are living below the poverty line.
The participant countries pledged to expand relief operations and help prevent the collapse of social services. There has also been an agreement on supporting the revival of Afghanistan’s economy. The participants also noted the importance of increasing cash liquidity and support to the banking sector in order to help stabilize the Afghan economy.
But there is no commitment yet on the release of nearly $10 billion frozen by the United States and other Western countries. The Taliban regime has been demanding that the funds should be unfrozen, which would allow the administration to meet its budgetary requirement. According to UN agencies, the Afghan economy has shrunk by 40 percent since the Taliban takeover of the country.
“We are requesting them to unfreeze Afghan assets and not punish ordinary Afghans because of the political discourse,” said a Taliban spokesman. He warned that such actions because of political dispute would push more Afghans to starvation in the harsh winter.
But there is no indication that the sanction could be lifted before the Taliban address the international community concerns on human rights and show that the group is willing to share power with Afghanistan’s minority ethnic and religious groups. The Oslo meeting has certainly produced a breakthrough but it’s still a long way until the Taliban administration is recognized by the international community.
- Zahid Hussain is an award-winning journalist and author. He is a former scholar at Woodrow Wilson Centre and a visiting fellow at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, and at the Stimson Center in DC. He is author of Frontline Pakistan: The struggle with Militant Islam and The Scorpion’s tail: The relentless rise of Islamic militants in Pakistan. Frontline Pakistan was the book of the year (2007) by the WSJ. His latest book ‘No-Win War’ was published this year.
