Afghanistan: Six months after the disaster. Women's Oppression and Humanitarian Tragedy

Jared Rowell started with an overview of the situation. Afghanistan is facing “an extreme humanitarian crisis.“ Over half of the population – 22,4M people – are currently food insecure with 3,7M people at extreme risk. At least 1700 health care centers have closed throughout the country, especially in rural areas. There has been an increase in diseases caused by not having access to clean drinking water and bad living conditions like cholera and measles. People must travel long distances to get health care. Covid-19 data/treatment is no longer reliable due to the lack of a testing system.

He explained that there are reports of increased gender-based violence, sexual exploitation, abuse, and early marriage since August. Parents need their children to work instead of going to school. Drug use has increased due to the trauma in the country and so has violence. There have been 700K new IDPs and up to 20K returnees per day from countries like Iran and Pakistan because they are not able to find work there and are forcibly sent back. There has been 30% reduction in the gross domestic product (GDP) and currency depreciation is -12%. Teachers, government workers, etc. are not paid. Jared Rowell added that the UN’s annual Humanitarian Response Plan for Afghanistan in 2022 is 4,5B USD. This is the single largest UN appeal in the UN’s history. It also highlights the incredible number of needs.

Jared Rowell asked for political solutions on the central banking cash flow and clarity on exemptions to sanctions for humanitarian aid. There needs to be an emphasis on the importance of open borders for evacuations and migrations, including Europe. Pakistan and Iran are not ideal places to stay long-term. “Looking forward“, he concludes, “If people, particularly women and children, have very clear reasons why they may need to migrate to safer countries, particularly in Europe, we need to encourage and advocate for European countries to give easier access for those vulnerable people to be able to seek asylum there. We need to mitigate the threat of the Islamic State (IS-KP). We need to have a greater focus on durable solutions. We are not going to be able to tackle the longer-term issues, particularly for women and children, if we don’t have longer-term models that allow us to provide greater support.“

Agreeing on the points Jared Rowell and Heela Najibullah made, Horia Mosadiq went on to describe the collapse of the Afghan state as a “collective failure“ of the international community and Afghans as well. “Now we are dealing with a regime that is not only a gender apartheid regime, that does not simply recognise women as human beings, but we are dealing with a government that simply does not recognise anyone who opposes their way of life, which they have elected and imposed on over 35 million people.“

Horia Mosadiq went into details of how the Taliban are a government that is built on violence, discrimination, and worst of all, a government that does not recognize anyone aside from its followers. Shading light on the drastic changes under the Taliban, she sees the achievements of the last 20 years now completely lost.. In the last 20 years, women were ambassadors, ministers, MPs, journalists, leaders, entrepreneurs, teachers, students and under the Taliban, „now they seem to be ‚nobody‘, they become persons who have no identity. Women disappear, are tortured, beaten and held in detention centres just for peacefully protesting for their right to access education and work.“

“I, as an Afghan, would say that I feel so much betrayed by everyone. From the United Nations to the US, to the Europeans, to almost everyone.“ Concluding the discussion, Mosadiq criticized Europe’s role while also pointing out to Norway and Switzerland for hosting the Taliban delegations in the last months. According to her, any engagement of the international community with the Taliban must be conditional. After 40 years of war, Afghanistan has millions of widows and there is no one to look after them if they are not employed. Conditions such as the return of women to their jobs, the hiring of women by aid agencies, etc. are just a few examples of what demands could be made.