WOMEN are paying “the highest price” for the withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan, a former government minister has said.
Nargis Nehan, a former MP and minister for mines and petroleum, was commenting on the announcement by the Taliban that all women are now expected to wear the burka at all times.
Asked if she believed that the Taliban had reformed and would protect women’s rights, she told GB News that Afghan politicians had repeatedly warned that the Taliban would not keep their promises.
Ms Nehan said: “The girls are banned from secondary school. And on top of that, this decree was something that we knew was going to come either today or tomorrow.
“This was something that we all knew about and we are definitely reminding the international community, but unfortunately, they didn’t hear from us and today the Afghan women are paying the highest price for their lack of responsibility and irresponsible negotiation, peacekeeping, and the withdrawal of the international community.”
She was speaking during an interview with Patrick Christys and Mercy Muroki during On The Point on GB News.
Ms Nehan said that people were starving in Afghanistan due to poor governance by the Taliban.
“While this was something that even during the peace process we kept on reminding the international community especially the US that we need to have a proper mechanism in place for accountability of the Taliban because there is no guarantee that Taliban would implement what they’re promising in Doha during the negotiations.
“Unfortunately, the peace process was rushed. And as a result of that today, we see that our Taliban for support took over Afghanistan in a manner that did not end up in a political settlement and then lack of recognition from the international community, which resulted in the freezing of the assets of Afghanistan.
“And as a result of that we have massive starvation going on in the country.”
She added: “What we are facing right now in Afghanistan is a situation of hopelessness and helplessness where we know that the situation is deteriorating very rapidly.
“Our people are suffering and we are starving.
“But then on top of that, we are also having this sense of helplessness that we can’t do anything about that. And this is really difficult to live with.”
