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Taliban takeover: Afghan women are not freed by a humanitarian catastrophe

2022-04-20T12:57:17.038Z


Taliban takeover: Afghan women are not freed by a humanitarian catastrophe Created: 04/20/2022, 14:46 From: Foreign Policy Women hold up banners and signs during a demonstration protesting the militant Islamist Taliban's restrictions on women's rights. © Mohammed Shoaib Amin/dpa The continued denial of aid to Afghanistan is an anti-feminist political decision, Foreign Policy argues. After the


Taliban takeover: Afghan women are not freed by a humanitarian catastrophe

Created: 04/20/2022, 14:46

From: Foreign Policy

Women hold up banners and signs during a demonstration protesting the militant Islamist Taliban's restrictions on women's rights.

© Mohammed Shoaib Amin/dpa

The continued denial of aid to Afghanistan is an anti-feminist political decision, Foreign Policy argues.

  • After the Taliban took power, Afghanistan* is in a humanitarian catastrophe.

    More on the chronology of the last 25 years and the Taliban conquest.*

  • Western states have reduced their financial support.

    But that's wrong, argues

    Foreign Policy

    .

  • Rather than treating Afghan women as rhetorical tools, policymakers should use them as key advisors.

  • This article is available in German for the first time – it was first published in

    Foreign Policy

    magazine on January 31, 2022 .

When the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last August, the United States and other members of the international community immediately froze billions of dollars in funding and aid intended for the ousted Afghan government.

Many US politicians believed that further financial support for the country would be a sign of complicity with an illegitimate regime and the Taliban's long-standing human rights abuses against their own people, particularly women and girls.

Months later, Afghanistan finds itself in an economic and humanitarian catastrophe.

A large part of the Afghan population suffers from acute hunger.

Some believe that this urgency presents wealthy countries holding Afghan assets with an unfortunate but strategically necessary choice: either provide economic aid to Afghanistan, thereby normalizing the Taliban, or withhold aid to provide economic leverage that could eventually force the Taliban to respect women's rights.

Taliban in Afghanistan: Economic aid must go hand in hand with the fight for women's rights

This is a wrong choice.

Economic aid must go hand in hand with advocacy for women's rights.

Otherwise, countries risk limiting the impact of potential economic aid and humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan and worsening the humanitarian crisis for millions of Afghans -- particularly women, who often have the responsibility of providing their families with food, medical supplies and other necessities wear.

When US politicians and organizations in Washington's political sphere of influence present the current standoff as a zero-sum dilemma, it hurts both sides.

Women are thrown to the wolves and defamed as the cause of the humanitarian catastrophe.

In reality, the best way for policymakers to ensure their policies promote effective economic recovery is to heed the voices of Afghan women leaders and heed their recommendations.

We do not support Afghan women by starving them.

Jamila Afghani

This wrong choice is based on historical hypocrisy.

For more than two decades, US politicians have used women's rights as justification for continuing the war in Afghanistan - despite spending almost 1,000 times more on military spending than supporting women's rights and have failed to prevent the exclusion of Afghan women from peace negotiations .

Now we see policymakers again citing the defense of women's rights as a rationale for stopping financial support to the country, perhaps hoping that argument will carry more moral weight than the more obscure claims about fighting terrorism or restoring human rights US leadership.

As one of us, Jamila Afghani, said, "We do not support Afghan women by starving them." What's more, if we don't involve women in the political decision-making process to solve the myriad crises in Afghanistan, we will all reconstruction efforts suffer.

Humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan: Women organize aid and mobilize networks

As the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan has deepened, Afghan women across the country have mobilized their networks to provide vital assistance to their local communities.

They have organized food aid for displaced families, helped families pushed into poverty by the economic meltdown, and supported the urgent relocation of human rights activists at risk of Taliban retaliation.

These women, with their far-reaching connections, know best how to ensure that humanitarian supplies and cash transfers meet the needs of their communities.

Rather than treating Afghan women as rhetorical tools to be argued for or against a particular policy proposal, policymakers in donor countries like the United States should turn to them as key advisors on critical issues, such as how to ensure that unfrozen funds and humanitarian aid reach the most vulnerable and marginalized and what effective strategies can be used to leverage negotiations with the Taliban.

This type of political consultation with women leaders should be common sense by now, and is even enshrined in US law through measures such as the Women, Peace and Security Act.

But all too often, the US political apparatus responds to crises by resorting to the option with the most sanctions.

He imposes economic sanctions on entire populations to force concessions from geopolitical opponents, claiming to be acting in the name of human rights.

It ignores the well-documented way in which sanctions erode human rights, particularly for vulnerable women and girls, by depriving countries of the resources they need to maintain basic services - like the provision of health care and clean water - which Burdens on women in caring for relatives are increased.

In addition, the local consultation steps are skipped and it is considered less important

Taliban takeover in Afghanistan: Humanitarian aid must be increased

Currently, the world needs to tap multiple sources of funding to channel funds to vulnerable people in Afghanistan.

This means finding ways to free up Afghan assets, establishing mechanisms such as United Nations-managed trust funds that can provide salaries and immediate cash assistance to Afghans, increasing humanitarian aid to Afghan civil society organizations, and Innovations of the local population in the area of ​​alternative financing options through money and cryptocurrency transfers must be supported.

All of these priorities are in areas where Afghan grassroots activists and women civil society leaders have important expertise,

Many Afghan women leaders have been forced to flee their country.

Nonetheless, they maintain their links with local networks and other leading women still serving in Afghanistan.

But instead of being asked for their expertise by international decision-makers, these Afghan women are all too often left out of discussions about their country's future.

A recent letter written by dozens of Afghan women-in-exile to donor countries' foreign ministers and ambassadors outlines how visa restrictions, temporary accommodation in host countries, lack of travel documents and limited financial support for asylum-seekers are isolating them at a time when their expertise is badly needed will,

In addition, many Afghan women have worked as politicians, civil servants, and community leaders in Afghanistan, dealing with economic policy and legal issues, enabling them to advise on effective ways of wealth transfer and trust fund management.

Afghan women, many with years of direct experience of dealing with the Taliban, have tried vehemently to make their voices heard at the now-defunct peace talks in Doha, Qatar.

These women have valuable advice for US and international decision-makers on how to negotiate with the Taliban to bring about change.

Afghanistan: States do not have to recognize the Taliban - and still act with them as a de facto power

States do not have to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

However, to promote lasting peace and economic stability, the United States and the international community must develop a coherent long-term political strategy to engage with the Taliban as a de facto power and advance human rights and gender justice protections.

US diplomacy and economic aid do not depend on friendly relations between governments.

In fact, only about 20 percent of US aid goes to governments.

Especially in repressive and corrupt contexts, US aid is often channeled through non-governmental organizations, private channels, and multilateral institutions.

All of these and other options are available or could be available for US aid to flow to Afghanistan.

The United States cannot allow its policy options to be caught between two unacceptable alternatives: either a permanent asset freeze or legitimizing the Taliban's human rights abuses.

Ending this standoff and providing economic aid to Afghanistan is not about sacrificing women's rights for the greater good.

It is about recognizing that the full inclusion of Afghan women in discussions about their country's economic and humanitarian policies is not only a human rights imperative, but also leads to political outcomes that better serve the needs of the Afghan people as a whole.

By Jamila Afghani and Yifat Susskind

Jamila Afghani

 is the Founder and President of the Afghan Section of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom.

In July 2019, she was part of an 11-strong women delegation that attended the intra-Afghan peace dialogue in Doha under the auspices of Qatar and Germany.

Twitter: @jamilaafghani

Yifat Susskind

 is Executive Director of Madre, a global women's human rights organization and feminist fund.

She leads the combined strategy of community-level partnerships and international human rights work with partners from Latin America, the Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Twitter: @YifatSusskind

This article was first published in English in the magazine "ForeignPolicy.com" on January 31, 2022 - as part of a cooperation, it is now also available in translation to the readers of the IPPEN.MEDIA portals.

*Merkur.de is an offer from IPPEN.MEDIA.

Foreign Policy Logo © ForeignPolicy.com

Sharia in Afghanistan: The Taliban impose penalties

unparalleled in the Islamic world.

Source: merkur

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