The humanitarian catastrophe and Taliban-era human rights record in Afghanistan persist after almost a year since the United States withdrew.
The rights of women in Afghanistan have worsened to a degree unseen since the Taliban initially imposed its oppressive policies in the 1990s, despite the requests of the United States and many members of the international community.
According to a quarterly report issued on Tuesday by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), between 2002 and 2020, initiatives aimed at women and girls received at least $787 million from USAID, the Department of State, and the Defense Department.
According to the research, despite the fact that possibilities for Afghan women “slightly increased” over the course of those 20 years, structural reform in Afghanistan regarding women’s rights “failed to accomplish the U.S. and international partners’ objective.”
There were a variety of barriers, including “ingrained traditional societal norms” and the “inconsistent execution” of women’s rights policy by the previous Afghan government.
Additionally, the report stated that women “usually confronted a hostile environment” due to the ongoing Taliban conflict.
Since August 2021, the United States has contributed $774 million to Afghanistan, making it the country’s single greatest source of aid.
However, despite the ongoing influx of funds since the Taliban takeover, it has proven challenging for relief organisations to determine how to distribute them.
Most of the staff members of several humanitarian groups have either relocated or left the nation.
There are no longer thousands of qualified Afghans in Afghanistan who could have assisted with this effort.
Additionally, assistance organisations still lack a structure for operating under the Taliban government.
One USAID assessment stated that although more than $1 billion in humanitarian aid has been offered to Afghanistan, negotiations with the Taliban-led government, which is still not accepted internationally, are necessary in order to reach the most vulnerable citizens.
The most recent large refugee outflow into Europe began in Afghanistan, and the world must never forget this, according to Peter Kessler, a spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, who talked to CBS News.
When the Taliban initially came to power in the late 1990s, in the vacuum left by the Soviets’ withdrawal, “Afghanistan should not be allowed to relapse back into the isolation and economic misery that saw people here and around the world endure in that period,” the United Nations said.
Women are now required to cover up when in public and breaking the Taliban’s rules might result in jail time as punishment.
The “best” headscarf for women, according to the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, is to never leave the house.
The Taliban prohibited girls from enrolling in secondary education in March. In response, the U.S. cancelled negotiations with Taliban representatives in Qatar on the $7 billion in assets being held in the country by the Afghan Central Bank.
According to local media sources cited by SIGAR, there has been an upsurge in forced marriages as a result of women being generally excluded from employment possibilities and education.
Some girls’ secondary and upper secondary schools have been allowed to function in six to nine provinces, according to USAID partners, despite the ban.
The majority of people in the nation make less than $1.90 a day.
According to the UN World Food Programme, 3 million children are at danger of acute malnutrition, and 92 percent of the population experiences some kind of food insecurity.
According to the survey, the population is now more susceptible to ISIS-K influence and recruitment because of the poor economic situation.
It issues a warning that the Taliban may be deterred from taking action against ISIS-K and other possible terrorist organisations by economic issues.
Nearly a year ago, during the frantic closing days of the American withdrawal, an attack at the Kabul airport claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service personnel and numerous Afghan evacuees. ISIS-K, ISIS’ affiliate in Afghanistan and Pakistan, claimed responsibility for the incident.
According to the report published on Tuesday, the organisation had roughly 2,000 members as of April 2022.
The United States has engaged in some communication with Taliban representatives, including discussions concerning their pledge to fight terrorism issued in February 2020.
Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier testified before Congress in May that al Qaeda has so far struggled to reassemble its leadership and that the Taliban had, “to a degree,” kept their word about not enabling al Qaeda to resurge.
President Biden stated on Monday that the United States had killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, also known as Osama bin Laden’s number two man, over the weekend inside a safehouse in Kabul, dealing a significant blow to al Qaeda.
Although many nations, notably China, have accepted Taliban diplomats, no nation has as of yet recognised the Taliban as Afghanistan’s legitimate government. Wang Yi, the foreign minister of China, went to Kabul in March to speak with Taliban leaders about China’s infrastructure projects and how they would benefit Afghanistan’s mining industry.
According to the paper, the conflict in Ukraine could make Afghanistan’s issues worse because Afghanistan depends significantly on imported food and fuel as well as the generosity of foreign donors, whose attention may shift away from Afghanistan and toward Ukraine as the conflict continues.