A UN donor conference in Geneva this Monday is to decide how to proceed with humanitarian aid. Many countries are ready to do so, but attach conditions to it. The Taliban announced that women and men will be strictly separated at universities in the future.
The aim of the largest international meeting to date since the seizure of power in mid-August is to fight hunger in the Central Asian country and to save public life from collapse. UN aid agencies have announced a financial requirement of 606 million dollars (513 million euros) by December. Around 40 ministers are expected, including Minister for Women Susanne Raab (ÖVP). UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres also wants to come to Geneva. Other participants are only there via video conference.
The Taliban have now also appointed a transitional government – without a single woman and without a single minister from another political group. The international troops left the country almost completely after almost 20 years. According to Welthungerhilfe, 13 million people in Afghanistan do not have enough to eat. Hundreds of thousands have been displaced by fighting in their towns and villages since the beginning of the year. Many have fled to the capital, Kabul.
Observers fear that the Taliban will again rule with a hard hand despite initial hints for a more moderate course. Between 1996 and 2001, the Islamists were in power with an extremely strict interpretation of Islamic law. At that time women and girls hardly had any rights. Many Afghan women fear that they will be degraded to second class citizens. Overall, there is great concern about the new rulers in the country.
In future, teaching at universities will only be segregated according to the sexes, as the incumbent Minister for Higher Education, Abdul Baghi Haqqani, announced in Kabul. The Taliban want to hire female lecturers for female students – but men should also be allowed to teach women, as long as the lessons follow the rules of Sharia law. This also included Islamic dress codes, the minister said.
Dozens of women demonstrated for the new government on Saturday. They moved across the campus of a university and then gathered in a classroom. Many were veiled in a way that had never been seen in Afghanistan in previous years: They wore floor-length black robes and black, hood-like headgear. Their faces were also completely covered in black. The march was accompanied by Taliban security forces.
After several protests this week in Kabul and other cities – against Pakistan and indirectly also against the rule of the Taliban – the Interior Ministry had banned demonstrations and declared that future protests would have to be registered in advance. Journalists who reported on the protests were arrested for several hours and severely ill-treated.
After the end of the military evacuation mission in Kabul, more than 250 people in need of protection have been flown out of the Afghan capital in the past few days. They were brought to the Arab emirate of Qatar in passenger planes. In the future, Pakistan also wants to help with such flights. More than 120,000 people had previously been flown out in military aircraft.
