TALIBAN ASK WOMEN TO JOIN GOVERNMENT

Showing conciliatory face, insurgents declare ‘amnesty’ in Afghanistan; urge women to join govt; vow not to turn the country into breeding ground of terrorism

KABUL: The Taliban on Tuesday said “the Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims” and urged them to join their government, seeking to convince a wary population that they have changed a day after deadly chaos gripped the main airport as desperate crowds tried to flee the country.

Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said, “They (women) should be in the government structure according to Shariah law.”

KABUL: The Taliban declared on Tuesday that the war in Afghanistan was over and that all opponents would be pardoned, holding their first press conference since seizing power from the West-backed government even as Kabul remained on edge.

“War has ended... [our leader] has pardoned everyone,” the Taliban group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said during the press meet, adding, “We are committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam.”

“We assure the international community and especially the US and neighbouring countries that Afghanistan won’t be used against them,” Mujahid said, making his first fully public appearance after spending 20 years spreading the group’s message from secret locations.

His comments addressed deep fears in Afghanistan and overseas that the Taliban’s return to power will in particular roll back advances in the freedoms enjoyed by women, and allow terrorist groups like al-qaeda to rebuild a base in the country.

Mujahid makes rare public appearance

He sat in front of a cluster of microphones, and a hand sanitiser bottle, with the white Taliban flag and blue curtains behind him. A translator sat to his left, leaning in to translate questions from the foreign press. It was the first time that the world saw Mujahid with his face uncovered.

“After consultations we will witness the formation of a strong inclusive Islamic government,” Mujahid said, dodging questions of who would lead the country.

He also said that a Talibanrun Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan wouldn’t seek retribution against those who worked with the US and the ousted administration or fought the movement.

“All of them have been pardoned,” he said during a more than hour-long press conference. He said the group would collect weapons in a country awash with guns, and crack down on opium production.

‘Nobody is going to knock on your doors’

“Nobody is going to harm you, nobody is going to knock on your doors,” he said, adding that the Taliban hoped that people frantically trying to board flights out of Afghanistan would stay and help rebuild their country.

Earlier, Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, made similar promises, saying the Taliban will extend an “amnesty” and encouraging women to join the government.

Past gun-toting Taliban, residents go to work

Some Kabul residents cautiously ventured back to work through quiet streets on Tuesday, fearful after a night broken by the sound of gunfire and facing questions from their new Taliban rulers stationed at checkpoints across the Afghan capital.

“I am scared but what made me open my shop is feeding my family,” 48-year-old grocery shopkeeper Mohammadullah told Reuters by phone. “I don’t have any other way of income.”

The majority of shops and supermarkets in Kabul were shuttered and schools were closed, residents said.

But some small grocery shops and butchers were open, as were hospitals. Traffic was light, but there were several pick-up trucks with mounted white flags that were carrying Taliban gunmen.