The Taliban’s insistence on extremism implicates the Afghan people in international isolation
The Taliban has missed a major opportunity for international recognition, especially after its repressive and racist practices against the Afghan people and women.
At the top of these practices is the prevention of girls from education. The Taliban has not offered the international community any guarantees regarding human rights and the cessation of violations; This prompted at least 12 countries, including Pakistan, that were about to recognize the Taliban government to reverse their decision after they saw for themselves the failure of the “Kabul” rulers to fulfill the promises they made to the international community.
Missed opportunity
A Pakistani official says: There were about 10 to 12 countries that were seriously considering recognizing their government in March, but those countries decided not to go ahead with recognition after the Taliban retracted some promises, especially regarding the education of girls, adding that the momentum was largely not just Pakistan, where some major countries were willing to formally accept Taliban rule, and if those countries had gone ahead with their decision, they would have certainly paved the way for other countries to follow suit.
In remarks to Pakistan’s Express Tribune, he said that when the Afghan Taliban returned to power in August last year, they assured the international community of an inclusive government, that their lands would not be allowed to be used again by terrorist groups, that women’s rights would be respected, and that girls would be allowed to go to school. The Taliban also informed the international community that girls’ schools would be reopened after the winter in March.
Taliban isolation
In June, during a visit to Islamabad, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock made a damning assessment of the Afghan Taliban’s rule, the paper reported: The war-torn country is going in the “wrong direction,” said Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, a senior Pakistani diplomat.
“When we look across the border, the Taliban are leading the country into collapse, adding that parents do not know how to feed their children. Opposition voices are being brutally suppressed. The economy is deteriorating. The international community must stand united and say to the Taliban loud and clear, “You are going in the wrong direction.” In a clear message, he emphasized that recognition of Taliban rule is out of the question: “As long as they are going down this road, there is no room for normalization and even less for the Taliban to be recognized as the legitimate rulers of the country”.
He continued: This international refusal comes as the Taliban government struggles to provide relief to people hit by a recent devastating earthquake due to lack of international recognition; The Afghan Acting Foreign Minister held a meeting last week with the US special envoy in Doha in an effort to unfreeze the foreign assets of the Afghan Central Bank. Washington announced a relief package for the earthquake victims, but there are no indications that it will allow the Taliban to lay their hands on foreign reserves that the US detained after they returned to power in August last year.
