Top Taliban leader makes more promises on women's rights but quips 'naughty women' should stay home
A
senior Taliban official has repeated the group's
as-yet-unfulfilled pledge to allow girls back into high school, saying there
would be "good news soon," but suggested that women who protested the
regime's restrictions on women rights should stay home.
Sirajuddin
Haqqani, Afghanistan's acting interior minister and the Taliban's co-deputy
leader since 2016, made the comments in an exclusive, first on-camera interview
showing his face with CNN's Christiane Amanpour in Kabul.
In
March after many promises that girls would be able to attend secondary school,
the Taliban reversed their decision, postponing the return indefinitely.
When
asked about Afghan women who say they are afraid to leave their homes under
Taliban rule, and those who have reported a chilling effect of the militant
group's leadership, Haqqani added with a laugh: "We keep naughty women at
home."
After
being pressed to clarify his comment by Amanpour, he said: "By saying
naughty women, it was a joke referring to those naughty women who are
controlled by some other sides to bring the current government into
question."
Haqqani
also set out some parameters for the future of women and work, which will be
limited by the Taliban's interpretation of Islamic law and "national,
cultural and traditional principles."
"They
are allowed to work within their own framework," he told Amanpour.
The
Taliban minister was speaking in his first on-camera interview with a Western
media outlet in years, just months after showing his face in public for the
first time. The high-ranking and intensely secretive official is wanted by the
FBI and has been classified by the US State Department as a "specially
designated global terrorist." He has a $10 million bounty on his head.
His
comments on girls' education and the rights of women punctuated a series of
claims that "there is no one opposed to (girls') education" in the
Afghan government.
"Already
girls are allowed to go to school up to grade 6, and above that grade, the work
is continuing on a mechanism," Haqqani said. "Very soon, you will
hear very good news about this issue, God willing," he added, without
specifying a timeframe.
Afterwards,
Haqqani's aides said the interview was an effort to open a new chapter in
relations with the US and the world.
But
the Taliban have repeatedly made assurances to the international community that
it will protect the rights of women and girls since seizing Afghanistan last
August, while simultaneously stripping away many of their freedoms and
protections.
Many
school-age girls and women have already lost hope. "Their entire
government [is] against girls' education," 19-year-old Maryam told CNN on
Tuesday. "I don't believe that the Taliban fulfil their promises ... they
don't understand our feelings."
"Step
by step they are taking all our freedoms," added Fatima, 17. "The
Taliban now and the Taliban of the 90s are the same — I don't see any change on
their policy and rules.
"Our
only hope is the international community brings extreme pressure on the Taliban
to allow girls to go to school. Nothing else [will] work."
Maryam
and Fatima, like the other women CNN spoke to, did not provide their last names
due to concerns about their security.
Haqqani's
comments will likely do little to encourage observers that the Taliban are
serious about their commitments. "Everyone from the Taliban leadership has
zero credibility on this issue," Heather Barr, associate director of the
Women's Rights Division at international watchdog Human Rights Watch, told CNN.
"They
have made representations about their supposed respect for women and
girls," since taking power, Barr added. "Every day after that there
was a new crackdown on women, and that's continued to intensify over
time."
The
G7 foreign ministers and the High Representative of the European Union last
week expressed their "strongest opposition" against the growing
restrictions imposed by the Taliban on women's and girls' rights. Haqqani told
CNN the international community's "judgements, research, and decision
making are all one-sided," adding: "We are still at the preliminary
phase. It has barely been eight months since we took over the government ... we
are yet to bring the situation back to normal."
After taking power, the Taliban have warned women to stay home and their fighters have used whips and sticks against those protesting. In
the subsequent months, they have been banned from large swathes of public life
-- from appearing on television to taking long road trips alone. A new decree earlier this month said
women must cover their faces in public.
When
pressed by Amanpour on whether all women have to cover their faces, Haqqani
responded: "We are not forcing women to wear [the] hijab, but we are
advising them and preaching to them from time to time ... [the] hijab is not
compulsory but it is an Islamic order that everyone should implement."
On
the streets of Kabul, the growing isolation of women from society has left many
in economic peril. "I have to work," a woman named Khotima told CNN.
"They should let us work because we have to become the men of the family
so we can find bread for the children."
"When
you don't have money, when you don't have [a] job, you don't have income, would
you be able to eat proper food when there is no work?" added another woman
named Farishta.
US
not 'currently' enemy, Haqqani says
Haqqani
was speaking with CNN two months after the Taliban released rare photographs of
the minister at a ceremony for police officers. Prior to that, he had rarely
been seen in public; his FBI "Most Wanted" poster features only a
grainy picture showing part of his face.
He
is wanted by the agency for questioning in connection with a 2008 attack on a
hotel in Kabul that killed six people including a US citizen; the US
government says Haqqani admitted to planning the attack in a
previous media interview. He is part of the family that forms the Haqqani
network, the Islamist militant organization founded by his father Jalaluddin
Haqqani, which was designated as a terrorist group by the United States in
2012.
Haqqani
told CNN that "In the future, we would like to have good relations with
the United States and the international community," adding:
"currently we do not look at them as enemies."
But
he made repeated assurances about women's rights and education for girls that
were at odds with the observations of global watchdogs and governments.
"The
international community is raising the issue of women's rights a lot. Here in
Afghanistan, there are Islamic, national, cultural, and traditional
principles," he said. "Within the limits of those principles, we are
working to provide them with opportunities to work and that is our goal."
The
Taliban released a so-called "decree on women's rights" in December
that failed to mention access to education or work and was immediately criticized by Afghan women and experts, who said
it was proof that the militant group was uninterested in upholding basic freedoms
for millions of women.
Afghan
girls above grade 6 were due to go back to school in March for the first time
since the Taliban's takeover, but were told to stay home until an appropriate
school uniform according to Sharia and Afghan customs and culture is designed,
the Taliban-run Bakhtar News Agency reported at the time.
Haqqani
told CNN the delay was necessary while leaders design the "mechanism"
through which girls can return to education. "There were some shortcomings
within the preparations that were ongoing. Work is ongoing on those
issues," he said.
But
experts expressed skepticism that their motives are different than was the case
between 1996 and 2001, when the first Taliban regime barred girls from
studying.
"They
always said the conditions aren't right now, [but they would] figure it
out," Barr said. "In those five years, that moment never came. So
very clearly to women and girls, that was always a lie, and that's how it feels
this time as well."
Haqqani
was also questioned on the status of Mark Frerichs, a US veteran and contractor
who was kidnapped in Kabul in late January 2020 and is believed to be held by
the Haqqani network.
A
proof of life video, apparently filmed in November 2021, emerged in April, in
which Frerichs said: "I'd like to ask the leadership of the Islamic
Emirate of fghanistan, please, release me. Release me so that I may be reunited
with my family."
Haqqani
told CNN: "That is what they think, that he is with us ... There is no
obstacle from the Emirate side for his release. If the United States accepts
the Islamic Emirate's conditions, the issue of his release could be solved in a
day.
"About
the assumptions that he might be with us, I want to say that we are part of the
Islamic Emirate, we are committed to obey the orders of Amirul Momineen, the
Supreme Leader," he added. "Efforts are ongoing at the government
level, and a team is designated for negotiations with them."
When
reached for comment, a US State Department spokesperson told CNN: "The
safe and immediate release of US citizen and Navy veteran Mark Frerichs is
imperative. We have made that clear to the Taliban and called on them to
release him immediately in practically every conversation over the past two
years."
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