Oslo April 10th, 022
Ms. Ann Linde,
Sweden Minister for Foreign Affairs
Ms. Annalena Barebock,
German Federal Foreign Minister
Ms. Anniken Huitfeldt,
Norway Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ms. Elizabeth Mary Truss,
UK Secretary of State for Foreign Commonwealth and Development Affairs
Ms. Deborah Lyons,
Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan
Mr. Antony J. Blinken,
US Secretary of State
Mr. Jean-Louis Le Drian,
French Minister of European and Foreign Affairs,
Josep Borrell Fontelless,
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
Mr. Luigi Di Maio,
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation
Mr. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al,
Qatar – Minister of Foreign Affairs
Her and his Excellency,
Please accept my sincere greetings and respects,
In this letter, we would like to draw your attention again to the condition of the Afghan people, especially women, and provide you with an objective and realistic picture of the Taliban’s treatment of Afghan women and people.
This letter is written on behalf of all Afghan women who have survived hardships and historical, political, and social discrimination. After tolerating such hardships and discrimination, they have reached a place where they are confronted with the most misogynistic, primitive, and cruel group, the Taliban, through resistance and non-violent struggle for their rights and justice.
We, Afghan women, have long-lasting agonies, and similar to their enduring pains, we have fought for a long time to eliminate all these discriminations and miseries. For example, in the past twenty years, we have studied, worked, and fought for our human rights amidst smoke, gunpowder, and terrorism.
Although the last two decades were not ideal for us, we achieved the minimum rights of having freedom, education, and jobs. However, after the government surrendered to the Taliban on 15 August 2021, the Taliban destroyed all the achievements and nascent democratic values of our land. The Taliban’s return to the country has put into question women’s fundamental rights.
On behalf of the protesting and non-violent women of Afghanistan, I participated in the Oslo Summit last February.
Now, I want to remind you of the promises that the Taliban’s representative made to the International Community regarding women’s rights during this meeting, so that you understand that the Taliban have not fulfilled any of their commitments and promises.
1: The Taliban promised that they will reopen girls’ secondary and high schools in the spring of 1401 (March of 2022); however, in practice, they did not let girls attend their schools. education is an indisputable and inalienable right of Afghan women; no group has the right to place restrictions on our girls’ education and debate it.
Due to political and religious purposes, the Taliban have taken Afghan girls’ education hostage. Therefore, no country should make concessions to the Taliban against the education of Afghan girls’ and the gates of schools should be reopened as soon as possible without any preconditions.
2: The Taliban vowed that they will allocate a specific budget to the Ministry of Women Affairs
and reactivate this ministry; however, they have not fulfilled their promise and have not given a specific budget to this ministry. Instead, they fired women both from governmental administrations and international organizations, such as WPF. They also restricted women from traveling without a male relative, working, and studying.
3: They promised at the Oslo summit that they will reinstate female judges in their previous positions in the courts again, but have not fulfilled it yet.
4: After the Oslo Summit, the Taliban have imposed the most severe and primitive laws on women and the people of Afghanistan. To name a few, they flog people on the streets and prevented women from public gatherings. Gender segregation that they had imposed in universities has now spread to public places, which means families can no longer get together and just hang out in parks. They have violated the privacy of people by searching their houses and have committed thousands of other crimes. In other words, in practice, the Taliban have imprisoned and shot women under different pretexts. Every morning, one witnesses the dead body of a woman whose hands and feet have been tied and who has been raped. An example could be the shooting of a young nurse in Balk province.
5: During the Oslo meeting, Amir Khan Mottaqi, the acting Foreign Minister of the Taliban contacted the Taliban officials to find and release Tamana Pariani, her sisters, and Parvaneh Ibrahim Kheil while they were denying they had any connections with the abduction of these protesting girls. On the contrary, later on, it emerged that not only those girls were abducted by the Taliban, but 31 additional female protestors were also abducted, imprisoned, and tortured by them. Those girls were forced to confess and their confession video was released by the Interior Ministry of the Taliban, aimed at suppressing women’s rights and protests.
6: At the Oslo Summit, the Taliban promised to establish an inclusive government, but in practice, they have started eliminating their intellectual and political opponents and have conducted an inquiry about the beliefs of the people. They have asked former government officials and intellectuals to repent; an example of this is the treatment of Shahabuddin Dilawar, the acting Minister of Mines, who asked former employees to write a letter of repentance about their activities and works in the previous government. Mehran Muvahed, a religious intellectual has been asked to write a repentance letter for obtaining a passport.
7: The Taliban have repeatedly said that Afghanistan is a shared home to all ethnicities and religious schools of thought, and they would offer an amnesty to all Afghans. However, they have acted contrary to what they said. Despite a general military amnesty announcement, they search for former military personnel. Moreover, they have closed the Shiite mosques.
Considering all these elements and in a nutshell: the Taliban are unreliable. Each day, they show their true face to all. Therefore, we warn world countries from any attempt to recognize this group and ask countries to treat this group with caution and reflection.
In this letter, we raise some specific demands and strongly suggest some specific actions. We hope that these actions will be implemented by your country to help restore the rights of women and the people of Afghanistan.
1: All Taliban officials should be sanctioned without any exception. The sanctions could include issuing a travel ban on the Taliban’s officials and freezing their assets and properties outside Afghanistan.
2: Oligarchs and countries that support the Taliban or have commercial and political relations with the Taliban should be sanctioned.
3: To place more pressure, the proposed budgets in the education sector should be suspended.
4: The world should avoid having normal relations with the Taliban.
5: The Taliban are committing war crimes and crimes against humanity that should be investigated and prosecuted at the international level.
6: Afghanistan needs transitional justice. All the Taliban’s warlords should respond to the people of Afghanistan in a political or judicial process of transitional justice.
7: Afghanistan is composed of different cultures and different ethnicities. To guarantee the rights and political participation of all groups, it is urgent to establish an inclusive, responsible and responsive system of governance granting human rights and women’s rights.
Thank you very much for your time and your attention. We, the protesting women of Afghanistan, are looking forward to hearing from you.
Respectfully,
Hoda Khamosh poet, writer, and activist for women’s rights
Copies:
António Guterres, General Secretary of the United Nations Ms. Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament Ms. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the Congress
Ms. Frédérique Dumas, Vice-President of the Amity Group at the French Assembly
Mr. Jacques Le Nay, President of the group France Afghanistan at the French Senate
