Despite the Afghanistan authorities’ claim to the contrary, the peoplein the country governed by the Taliban are passing throughunimaginatively excruciating circumstances. Reports available fromdifferent sources tell a very painful story of poverty, gender-baseddiscrimination, little involvement of the global community in helpingfight widespread hunger, paucity of resources to promote economicactivity all over the country, etc. In fact, Afghans in general face astruggle for survival almost every day.
Whatever efforts made so far to spur economic activity on a mass scalehave reportedly failed to alleviate people’s suffering. Jobs of evenlow level are too few to absorb the growing workforce. There is onlyan apology for healthcare facilities one finds in a country of over 45million (4.5 crore) people, according to the World Population Review.Women remain the worst sufferers, though not surprising in a countrygoverned by an ideological mix of religion and tribal traditions. Howelse can one explain the forceful denial of education to girls beyondthe middle class? There are different other kinds of discriminatorytreatment meted out to the female sex in the name of religion, thoughunjustifiable in accordance with the Islamic teachings if the localtribal influence is kept aside. Islam can never justify girls of lessthan 10 years in age forcibly being married off so that their familygets money to survive for some time.
The Guardian of London recently published a well-researched reporthighlighting families forced to marry off their eight-or-nine-year-olddaughters for 200,000 Afghanis (2,270 pounds) to save other familymembers from dying of hunger. The chilling report says that these poorgirls cry inconsolably when they come to know of being virtually soldoff in the name of marriage, but ultimately they accept their faitaccompli, looking at the pitiable condition of their families!
The living conditions in Afghanistan from almost every angle have onlyworsened since the country became free from the foreign yoke in August2021 with the Taliban taking over the reins of power on September 7that year. According to the Human Rights Watch, over 3.7million children face acute malnutrition even today. This is,however, not to argue that the previous regime imposed on the Afghanswith the help of foreign forces (US-led NATO troops) should have beenrunning the affairs instead of the Taliban. The Taliban governmentcame into being following the just demand that Afghanistan should behanded over to the Afghans so that they can govern their country inthe manner they wish to. But this does not mean that the governmentshould be run in accordance with the whims and fancies of a groupwhich has made insufficient efforts to ensure that Afghanistan becomesa valuable part of the global community.
The world is changing fast. The US is no longer in a position tocontrol the world as it did in the past. If the US refuses tocooperate with regard to the task of rebuilding Afghanistan, there areother resourceful nations who would be forthcoming to help alleviatethe widespread poverty in the country. Of course, the Talibangovernment deserves appreciation for building bridges of understandingwith India, Pakistan, China, Russia, the UAE and certain othercountries. Russia has accorded the formal full recognition to theTaliban-governed Afghanistan. But the countries which want tocontribute enormously for rebuilding Afghanistan cannot help producethe desired results unless the government in Kabul creates a conditionconducive to economic growth. It must try to get a good Press byfocusing on human rights, economic growth and ending gender-baseddiscrimination, including the education of its female population.
Can the Taliban government deny that Afghanistan’s economy has shrunkto a level from where the country finds itself helpless to take careof the people’s food-related requirements? Nearly half of itspopulation (around 45 per cent) is in need of urgent humanitarian aidfrom the global community, unlikely to be available under theprevailing circumstances.
But who is to blame for all this? Blaming the Taliban government alonebecause of its policies will not be fair. The world community too willhave to share the blame. It should extend all kinds of assistance toAfghanistan to speed up the country’s rebuilding efforts as aninvestment in peace in the region and the rest of the world. But, atthe same time, the Taliban administration will also have to amend itspolicies to be able to get enough cooperation from the internationalcommunity. The Taliban government’s assertion that the difficultiesthe people face is the price they have to pay for getting independencefrom the foreign yoke will not do. It must remind the internationalcommunity of its responsibility to come to the rescue of a countryravaged by decades of strife as a result of the Great Game worldpowers had been playing in Afghanistan. The world community shouldrealise the peculiar difficulties Afghanistan faces with lakhs (over60 lakhs, according to the figures provided by the United Nations HighCommissioner for Refugees or UNHCR) of Afghan refugees forced to leavefor their country from Pakistan,Iran and elsewhere.
Sadly, foreign aid to Afghanistan today is almost zero. This amountsto perpetuating the stark poverty in a country which played the worstrole in threatening world peace and stability in the past. Povertybreeds contempt and hatred for all. An extreme poverty-strickencountry becomes the best breeding ground for extremists. Therefore, itis the duty of the international community to come to the aid of theAfghans with open arms so that this landlocked country does not pose afresh threat to peace and progress in the world.
Despite all kinds of difficulties faced by the Afghans during the fiveyears of Taliban rule, they have provided enough proof again that theyare fiercely independent-minded people. They cannot allow themselvesto be used by any other country to play political games by usingAfghanistan’s territory. Here one cannot help pointing out thatPakistan desperately wanted Afghanistan to be freed from outsidecontrol with a view to getting strategic depth in its immediateneighbourhood. This expectation of Pakistan has, however, turned outto be unrealistic. The two countries indulged in a full-scale militaryconflict in February this year (2026) on security-related issues.Pakistan accused Afghanistan of providing shelter to an extremistgroup called the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) whereas Kabulvehemently denied the charge. Afghanistan asked Pakistan to keep itsown house in order instead of blaming others.
As quoted by Afghanistan International, the Afghanistan Ambassador inIslamabad, Sardar Ahmad Shakib, told a gathering on September 1,though indirectly, that Pakistan was wrong in thinking that theTaliban government was working as a ‘proxy’ for India. He pointed outthat an independent country could maintain cordial relations withseveral states without bothering about the wishes of others. Heasserted that Afghanistan and Pakistan were next-door neighbours, nodoubt, but this did not mean that they should approve of each other’sstrategic choices. Both are free to make their own independentdecisions. And that is what Afghanistan under the Taliban has beendoing.
[The writer, a former Dy Editor of The Tribune, is a Delhi-basedpolitical commentator.]