09:57 08/09/2021
Afghanistan is now a repressive Islamic emirate. One name is enough for this, the appointed Minister of the Interior, Sirajudin Hakani, has been on the United Nations terror list since 2007. The FBI has put a $10 million bounty on his head. Sirajuddin Haqqani is considered close to Al-Qaeda and is responsible for planning many suicide terrorist attacks in Kabul, including the attack on the German embassy in Kabul in May 2017. But what do these decisions of the Taliban mean for the daily lives of people in Afghanistan? ?
Fear like the sword of Damocles
When I called the Afghan politician, Habiba Sarabi in Qatar, she told me that she feels like a "dry blade of grass in the water", disconnected from the current. With a trembling voice, she said that she is terribly afraid of returning to her homeland, because she is a politically active woman and that she is part of the Hazara Shiite minority. Hazaras are often ostracized in Sunni Afghanistan. The first Taliban government (1996-2001) systematically persecuted them. A mass murder was committed in Masar i-Sharif in 1998.
Will Afghanistan now turn into a country where women, minorities and those who think differently must become invisible in order to survive? A person's sense of security does not depend only on whether someone immediately commits violence, but also on the awareness that someone can commit violence at any time. Without punishment, because he has absolute power. The fear of the sword of Damocles hovers everywhere.
Absolutism of the winners
Habiba Sarabi, this "dry blade of grass in the water" was part of the Afghan state, which arose with Western intervention after the terrorist attacks of September 11. She was the first governor of a province, minister of women and candidate for vice president. She followed those four women who, until a few weeks ago, negotiated with the Taliban for peace without success in Doha. But the Taliban won over the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, for which Sarabi fought, and abolished it. In their Islamic emirate, women no longer hold political positions. Even representatives from the previous Afghan order are not found in the new emirate, despite the Taliban's vows that they want to establish an "inclusive Islamic system".
The new Taliban regime is an absolutist government of winners. No women. No minorities. Without others. With this, the Islamists make the same fatal mistake as the international community. Even the US and its allies arrogantly refused in 2001 to negotiate with the losers, the ousted Taliban.
Like beaten dogs
The result is known: The war in Afghanistan escalated. The US and NATO took it to the Afghan countryside. The civilian population paid the price. International troops withdrew like beaten dogs after 20 years from the battlefield, and the Taliban are now intoxicated by the victory over the superpower. But it is one thing to win a battle and another to govern a poor multi-ethnic country of 38 million people in the 21st century. There is already armed resistance. Protests of brave women and men. Fighters and demonstrators film themselves with smartphones and send the videos to a global audience.
Deep poverty and hunger
The situation in Afghanistan is an emergency. Millions suffer from hunger and wander as refugees in their own country, also uprooted by ongoing drought and violence. The UN warns of a catastrophe and a new large movement of refugees. International financial aid, on which Afghanistan has been completely dependent after four decades of war, has been frozen since the Taliban came to power. The economy is collapsing, humanitarian aid is hard to come by. An Afghan government's top priority should be to help and protect its own people. But what do the Taliban do? They end peaceful demonstrations with brutal violence, demand decisive war in the Beet Valley, punish journalists, ban music, and write to female students how to cover up. They deny the vindictive murderous acts that happened with evidence.
Recipe for disaster
Militant Islamists cannot rule a country for long with violence, oppression and prohibition. Not even with ignorance, fancy words and lies. The failures of the Soviets and Western democracies in the Afghan battle have taught us this recently.
The attempt at democracy in Afghanistan failed because it was implemented in a one-sided, ignorant, half-hearted and power-hungry manner. The Taliban's new attempt to make a totalitarian emirate again is a sure recipe for worsening the disaster there. Hunger, injustice and despair are dangerous enemies, even for the so-called absolute winners./DW
Source of information @TvKlan: Read more at: www.botasot.al
