The Biden administration would prefer if you look away from stories like the ones below, but in addition to the thousands of Americans stranded in Afghanistan, women, gays, and US allies are being persecuted by the Taliban. As I mentioned last week, it would be one thing if Biden had argued that some very terrible things would inevitably happen in Afghanistan after our withdrawal, but that policy was still within the interests of the United States, despite the awful consequences. Cold, but clear-eyed.
The trouble is that Biden has argued at the same time that human rights are "central" to his foreign policy and that his administration is a champion for women and the LGBT community. He cannot have it both ways, especially with stories like this playing out:
The director of a girls’ school in Kabul desperately wants to learn details of the Taliban’s plan for girls’ education. But she can’t attend the weekly Taliban committee meetings on education. They are for men only. “They say, ‘You should send a male representative,’” the director, Aqila, said inside the Sayed Ul-Shuhada High School, which was shattered in May by a terrorist bombing that killed scores of girls. But Aqila and other Afghan educators don’t need to attend meetings to comprehend the harsh new reality of education under Taliban rule. The emerging government has made clear that it intends to severely restrict the educational freedoms enjoyed by many women and girls the past 20 years. The only question is just how draconian the new system will be, and what type of Islamic-based education will be imposed on both boys and girls. Just as they did when they ruled most of Afghanistan in the late 1990s, the Taliban seem intent on ruling not strictly by decree, but by inference and intimidation.
The Islamist grip is tightening:
The Taliban's effective ban on women working sank in on Monday, sparking rage over the dramatic loss of rights after millions of female teachers and girls were barred from secondary school education. After pledging a softer version of their brutal and repressive regime of the 1990s, the Islamic fundamentalists are tightening their control of women's freedoms one month after seizing power. "I may as well be dead," said one woman, who was sacked from her senior role at the ministry of foreign affairs. "I was in charge of a whole department and there were many women working with me... now we have all lost our jobs," she told AFP, insisting she not be identified for fear of reprisals.
Meanwhile, LGBT Afghans live in abject terror. Just months ago, the US Embassy in Kabul flew a pride flag, generating online applause. Then the Biden administration abandoned that same embassy during its chaotic US withdrawal, as they deliberately ceded control of the capital city to a stone age terrorist organization. And now, this nightmare:
“One Taliban judge said there were only two punishments for homosexuality -- stoning or being crushed under a wall.” https://t.co/bT3n7ChYe8
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 20, 2021
The 20-year-old university student is one of hundreds of LGBTQ people in Afghanistan who are urging advocates outside the country to help them escape the Taliban regime. Two LGBTQ activists outside of Afghanistan told CNN they had separate lists each with hundreds of names of people who want to flee. "The situation gets worse every day ... fear of arrest is part of life now and I have such stress that I can't even sleep," Balkhi told CNN by text message from an undisclosed location. It's not clear yet how severely the Taliban will enforce its strict religious laws against Afghanistan's LGBTQ citizens. No official statement has been made, but in an interview with Germany's Bild newspaper in July, one Taliban judge said there were only two punishments for homosexuality -- stoning or being crushed under a wall. In response to a request for comment, a Taliban spokesman told CNN they had no official plans for their LGBTQ population yet. "When there is anything I will keep you updated," he said.
They'll circle back on murdering gay people. The story details LGBT people being assaulted and raped, with some in hiding. "All said they feel abandoned by the international community, with evacuation flights out of the country now finished and the Taliban pushing to normalize relations with Western nations," the article reports. Betrayal is ubiquitous inside Afghanistan, and it's being felt most acutely among the tens of thousands of US allies who were promised a safe exit from their country, only to have the rug snatched out from under them. Via someone who desperately begged the White House to step up evacuations many months ago, this is disturbing:
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#SameEvilTaliban - this time they’re conducting house to house searches looking for our wartime allies who remain left behind. @POTUS @PressSec @JakeSullivan46 @SecBlinken take a hard long look at this - it is the fate to which you abandoned them. #OurFriendsAreDying pic.twitter.com/Duf6UTrvrp
— Matt Zeller (@mattczeller) September 19, 2021
There is no such thing as the "moderate" Taliban, but there are factions that may be incrementally preferable. Guess who's winning the power struggle?
The man the U.S. and its allies hoped would be a moderate voice in Afghanistan’s Taliban government has been sidelined after a dramatic shootout in the presidential palace in Kabul, according to people with knowledge of the matter. Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the group’s most public face who led peace talks with the U.S., was physically attacked by a leader of the U.S. terrorist-designated Haqqani Network in early September during talks at the palace over forming the cabinet, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing the incident. Baradar had pushed for an “inclusive” cabinet that included non-Taliban leaders and ethnic minorities, which would be more acceptable to the rest of the world, the people said. At one point during the meeting, Khalil ul Rahman Haqqani rose from his chair and began punching the Taliban leader. Their bodyguards entered the fray and opened fire on each other, killing and wounding a number of them, the people said. While Baradar was not injured he has since left the capital and headed to Kandahar -- the group’s base -- to speak with Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada, effectively the Taliban’s spiritual head. The cabinet lineup released on Sept. 7 included no one from outside the Taliban...
Dark humor seems to be the order of the day:
Hey guys, so the less-bad terrorist governing Afghanistan (Baradar) got physically attacked by the even-worse terrorist (Haqqani) and has now fled Kabul. Don’t worry this was all planned for, or something. https://t.co/9XbavNznQI
— Josh Rogin (@joshrogin) September 19, 2021
I'll leave you with this, from yesterday:
We just abandoned thousands of Americans and allies in terrorist-controlled Afghanistan after the president explicitly promised that would not happen. https://t.co/9C3SwvlA3C
— Guy Benson (@guypbenson) September 21, 2021
