Support Afghan Infra Projects Without Political Preconditions, Says Taliban Official

The UN agencies, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch warned that the decision would have negative consequences.

The UN Women Afghanistan called the closure of women's beauty salons the latest “crackdown on women rights, women’s entrepreneurship and job opportunities”.

The UN office stated that women must be a part of the economy for any country to chart a sustainable way out of crisis and improve development outcomes.

Also, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) called on the Taliban to halt the edict calling for closure of beauty salons.

According to UNAMA, which is chaired by a woman in Afghanistan, the new restrictions on women’s rights will have a negative impact on the Afghan economy and contradicts the Taliban’s stated support for women’s entrepreneurship.

UNAMA added that the organisation remains engaged with other stakeholders to reverse the bans on Afghan women.

Meanwhile, Heather Bar, Associate director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch in response to the Taliban’s decision on banning beauty salons in Afghanistan, said that the Taliban officials spend all day trying to think of spaces that remain open for women to crush them.

Also, Samira Hamidi, a human rights activist, and Amnesty International campaigner, said that the Taliban continue to repress Afghan women justifying it as Islamic law.

According to Hamidi, closing women's beauty salons proves that the Taliban consider women as their "enemy” and stressed that she is concerned that one day the Taliban will not allow women to visit hospitals too.

The Ministry Vice and Virtue of the Taliban recently asked the municipalities of the group across Afghanistan to close all women’s beauty salons on a one-month notice.

The ministry wrote in a letter addressed to the municipalities that they issued the order to ban the beauty salons based on the "verbal" decree of Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban.

The Taliban have previously banned Afghan women from the right to work and education, visiting parks, and restaurants, stadiums, and sports clubs.

Haqqani stressed that the group has not obeyed the demands of foreign governments.

The Taliban's Ministry of Interior released the video recording of Sirajuddin Haqqani's speech in Paktia Province on Wednesday.

Haqqani stated, "Today, no one recognises us because we did not accept their orders and demands."

This senior Taliban official said that Afghanistan had been invaded militarily, economically, and culturally. He claimed that all the players before the Taliban came to power didn’t care for rebuilding Afghanistan.

Earlier, the Taliban's interior minister had asked the international community to recognise the government of the group as a legitimate government in Afghanistan.

The international community has repeatedly asked the Taliban to form an inclusive government and respect human rights, especially women's rights, grant the right to work and education of Afghan women, cut ties with terrorist groups, and not allow Afghanistan's soil to be used against other countries.

In the latest case, the leaders of the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation called for the formation of an inclusive government with the participation of ethnic, religious, and political groups in Afghanistan too.

However, the Taliban has so far ignored the international community’s demands and continued to implement repressive policies, especially against women.

In a statement, the Taliban’s foreign ministry said that Afghanistan is an observer member of SCO and the absence of the group in the SCO virtual meeting "impedes coordination" with the organisation.

The 23rd summit of the SCO heads of state council was held on Tuesday. The leaders of the member states presented their views virtually in this meeting.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Taliban's foreign ministry called the absence of Afghanistan in such meetings an obstacle to comprehensive coordination to prevent instability and drug trafficking, support humanitarian assistance, implementation of infrastructural projects, and facilitate regional economic initiatives.

Members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in a joint declaration said that it essential to establish an inclusive government in Afghanistan with the participation of representatives of all ethnic, religious, and political groups.

The member states believed that one of the most important factors of preservation and strengthening of safety and stability within SCO region, is advocating to build Afghanistan as an independent, neutral, united, democratic, and peaceful state, free from terrorism, war, and drugs.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban, however, emphasised that the group’s government “represents every language, generation, and ethnicity" of Afghanistan and added that the concerns of the member states about inclusive government could be addressed with an understanding of the ground realities.

The Taliban asked the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation to facilitate the participation of the group in the upcoming SCO meeting which is scheduled to be held in Kazakhstan.

Shanghai Cooperation Organisation had previously eight members and Iran was officially accepted as the ninth member of the organisation on Tuesday.

Delawarzai on Tuesday said, "Inside the Taliban prison, they gave electric shocks to my genitals."

Delawarzai, who accused Khosty of "forced marriage after raping her", said that she had been imprisoned at a Taliban prison for six months.

The Afghan woman said that she was interrogated and tortured several times in the "directorate 40” of the Taliban Intelligence Agency. She also said that she could hear the “heartbreaking sounds” of other prisoners being tortured there.

On Sunday, Delawarzai wrote about torture and imprisonment by the Taliban on a Twitter account attributed to her. She wrote, "From November 2022 to April 2023, the Taliban tortured me inside the intelligence prison of 40 Directorate and even shocked my genitals… They forced me to confess."

Elaha Delawarzai, a medical student, recorded a video message last year, saying that she had been forcibly married to former Taliban spokesperson, Saeed Khosty, in the Taliban General Directorate of Intelligence (GDI). However, Khosty had said that the marriage had taken place as per the will of Delawarzai.

In response to the Taliban's treatment of her, Delawarzai wrote on Twitter, "The Taliban apply their oppressive laws only to the defenseless people of Afghanistan, and there is no punishment for the Taliban members."

SCO held the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of SCO virtually on Tuesday and stressed that for stability in the region, the situation in Afghanistan must be settled immediately.

The member states believed that one of the most important factors of preservation and strengthening of safety and stability within SCO region, is advocating to build Afghanistan as an independent, neutral, united, democratic, and peaceful state, free from terrorism, war and drugs.

The SCO member states also emphasised on the importance of long-term hospitality and effective assistance provided to the Afghan refugees by regional and neighbouring countries of Afghanistan.

The declaration thanked the international community for their active efforts to facilitate Afghan refugees’ dignified, safe, and sustainable return to their homeland.

With regards to the evolving humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, the member states supported continued efforts to assist the Afghan people.

The 23rd meeting of heads of state of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation has been held virtually by India. Among others, Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and the President of China, Xi Jinping, have participated in the SCO meeting.

India assumed the rotating chairmanship of the SCO at the Samarkand Summit of the organization on September 16 last year.