The EU has invited Taliban officials to Brussels to discuss a migration deal — and today I am shaken and deeply disturbed by this.
This is the same Taliban that banned girls from secondary schools and forced them into marriage. The same Taliban that, earlier this month, arrested dozens of women in Herat for how they were dressed. The same Taliban that detains, beats and executes women who dare to speak out or break their rules.
Through its system of gender apartheid, the Taliban have erased women and girls from public life. Europe must not legitimise a regime responsible for one of the worst human rights crises in the world.
Any engagement with the Taliban must begin and end with the rights of Afghan women and girls.
This is the same Taliban
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One response to “This is the same Taliban”
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Yes, there’s no question the Taliban are a bad lot. They also effectively control Afghanistan. The EU invited the Taliban to discuss the deportation of Afghan people in the EU who have had their asylum applications rejected. Who else are you going to discuss that with?
Naturally, human rights groups are outraged. There couldn’t possibly be dangerous criminals among the long suffering people. Young men who grew up under the Taliban couldn’t possibly share their attitudes towards women, and so on.
A decade of war didn’t help. As Desmond Tutu said, “If you want peace, you don’t talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies.”
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