Taliban vow peace, women’s rights
Spokesperson asks families trying to flee to return, promising ‘huge difference’ from 20 years ago
KABUL—Holding their first official news briefing after their lightning seizure of Kabul, the Taliban said they want peaceful relations with other countries and pledged that Afghan women would be allowed to work and study “within the framework of Islam.” Zabihullah Mujahid, their spokesperson, made the statement as the United States and Western allies resumed evacuating diplomats and civilians after the chaos at the airport.
KABUL—The Taliban said on Tuesday they wanted peaceful relations with other countries and would respect the rights of women within the framework of Islamic law, as they held their first official news briefing since their lightning seizure of Kabul.
The Taliban announcements, short on details but suggesting a softer line than during their rule 20 years ago, came as the United States and Western allies resumed evacuating diplomats and civilians the day after scenes of chaos at Kabul airport as Afghans thronged the runway.
A White House official said military flights had evacuated about 1,100 Americans from Kabul on Tuesday.
“We don’t want any internal or external enemies,” the movement’s main spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, said.
Women would be allowed to work and study and “will be very active in society but within the framework of Islam,” he added.
Mujahid said the Taliban would not seek retribution against former soldiers and government officials.
He also said they were granting an amnesty for former soldiers as well as contractors and translators who worked for international forces, adding that there was a “huge difference” between the Taliban now and 20 years ago.
No work, school
Mujahid also said families trying to flee the country at the airport should return home and nothing would happen to them.
During their 1996-2001 rule, also guided by Islamic sharia law, the Taliban stopped women from working. Girls were not allowed to go to school and
women had to wear all-enveloping burqas to go out and then only when accompanied by a male relative.
“If (the Taliban) want any
respect, if they want any recognition by the international community, they have to be very conscious of the fact that we will be watching how women and girls and, more broadly, the civilian community is treated by them as they try to form a government,” US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said on Tuesday.
US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said they had agreed to hold a virtual meeting of Group of Seven leaders next week to discuss a common strategy and approach to Afghanistan.
UN special session
The UN Human Rights Council will hold a special session in Geneva next week to address “serious human rights concerns” after the Taliban takeover, a UN statement said.
The European Union said it would only cooperate with the Afghan government following the Taliban’s return to power if they respected fundamental rights, including those of women.
The decision by Biden, a Democrat, to stick to the withdrawal deal struck last year by his Republican predecessor Trump has stirred widespread criticism at home and among US allies.
Biden’s approval rating dropped by 7 percentage points to 46 percent, the lowest level of his seven-monthlong presidency, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted on Monday.
Sen. Bob Menendez, Democratic chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the panel would hold a hearing on US policy toward Afghanistan, including negotiations between former Republican President Donald Trump’s administration and the Taliban and the Biden’s administration’s execution of the withdrawal.