After the withdrawal of the forces of the international community, the fall of the government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in August 2021 and the coming to power of the Taliban group, the issue of “interacting with the Taliban” has been a point of discussion for various countries and organizations. A number of countries and organizations have been interested in interacting with the Taliban group. Countries like Pakistan, India, Russia, such and some other countries. These countries have entrusted the Afghan embassies to the Taliban group and have some commercial transactions with Afghanistan. Although none of these countries have yet recognized the Taliban as a government. On the other hand, the political tensions between the countries involved in Afghanistan will have negative effects on the position of the countries against the Taliban. Different countries have relations with the Taliban in order to protect their interests and encourage other countries in this field. It tries to seek and maintain its political and economic interests in Afghanistan. But the people of Afghanistan have different expectations from the countries and the world community as a whole in dealing with the Taliban. The people of Afghanistan expect the countries involved in Afghanistan and the international community to consider the interests and rights of the Afghan people in their interaction with the Taliban. The people of Afghanistan want a government that is responsible and responsive to the demands of the people of Afghanistan, respects the fundamental rights of the people of Afghanistan, and wants a government based on the law and the people’s vote, that is, a government by the people for the people, not a single-ethnic and single-group authoritarian government. No human and civil rights of the people should be bound.
As I mentioned, a number of countries and organizations are looking for interaction with the Taliban and have focused on the issue of interaction with this group. But the people of Afghanistan want to know what is the definition of interaction with the Taliban from the point of view of these countries and organizations? Do countries and the United Nations consider interaction with the Taliban only based on their political interests? Are human rights values considered in interaction with this group?
The answer to these questions is still not very clear to the people of Afghanistan. Although it should be remembered that a number of countries undoubtedly work with the Taliban based on their political interests. But there are many countries whose policies are not so clear. If countries and organizations consider their interaction based on their political and economic interests, then the human rights of the Afghan people will have no meaning. As a rational and valuable group, the Taliban will stand before the negotiators against the rights of the Afghan people, and the values of human and civil rights will be replaced by terrorist values. It is no longer necessary for the people of Afghanistan to expect human rights protection from countries and organizations; And if the criteria for interaction with the Taliban is not the values of human rights, democracy and human freedoms, then interaction with the Taliban will no longer be meaningful.
Countries and organizations should not pay so much attention to the issue of interaction, instead they should think about the necessary pressure on the Taliban. The international community should know that the Taliban think that the international community cannot do anything against them, because they could not do anything during their 20 years of presence in Afghanistan. In fact, it is not. The United Nations and other countries can create a pressure mechanism against the Taliban and pressure this group to accept the necessary reforms – respecting the civil and human rights of the Afghan people.
Taliban do not accept women as human beings. If they were accepted as human beings, they would be given rights. Today, more than 15 million Afghan women and girls have been deprived of all their basic rights. This means that the Taliban do not accept more than three billion women in the world as human beings. For example, if the women of the world lived under the Taliban rule today, they would undoubtedly be deprived of all their human and civil rights. Therefore, the countries interested in interacting with the Taliban must understand that not paying attention to the human rights of the people of Afghanistan is disregarding and disrespecting the rights of all people on earth. There is no difference between the human rights of an Afghan woman and a German or American woman in that corner of the world.
Spatial and temporal distance is not an issue.
You all know that the values of human rights, political rights and freedom of expression are universal values. UN member states are committed to support these values. The countries and the organization have an obligation to defend the provisions of the UN human rights conventions. The member states are obliged to include the provisions of the UN conventions in all their country’s domestic laws and make the necessary efforts to implement them. Afghanistan is also a member of the United Nations human rights conventions, especially the Convention on the Rights of Women and Children. The previous governments of Afghanistan have ratified these conventions. But the Taliban claim the sovereignty of Afghanistan; But none of these international conventions accept human rights and considers them laws “against Sharia”; That is, according to the Taliban, these international laws are obsolete and only Sharia laws are valid for the Taliban. This issue itself is a big obstacle in the interaction between the international community and the Taliban.
When the Taliban do not accept UN conventions and other international rules, how is there room for interaction with the Taliban? Today, under his rule, the Taliban are continuously and openly committing human rights violations. Violation of human rights is not noticeable anywhere and under any excuse. The international community and the United Nations should not simply ignore this issue. The countries involved in Afghanistan should not prioritize their political interests over the human rights of the Afghan people in dealing with the Taliban and trade global values with a handful of terrorists in Afghanistan. A group that does not have anything else for humanity just for pleasure and destruction. Countries and organizations have no right to interact with the Taliban without considering human rights values. Interaction with the Taliban means strengthening terrorism in Afghanistan and the world.
The United Nations and other countries must understand this important issue that the interaction with the Taliban must take place when this group must respect all the basic rights of the Afghan people, especially women. Accept all the human rights conventions of the United Nations that the previous governments of Afghanistan have approved and implement their provisions. A group that does not believe in human and civil values will not have an interactive basis. There will be no standard to measure the Taliban’s actions. The performance of the countries is not based on Sharia laws, which would create a common point between the Taliban government and other countries and provide the basis for interaction. Yes, interaction is possible if they ignore the values of human rights and focus only on their political interests.
If the United Nations and other countries interact with the Taliban without considering the values of human rights, it means that the rights of the Afghan people have less value in the eyes of the international community and organizations. The international community says that the Taliban violate human rights in Afghanistan, they do not accept women as human beings and do not give them human rights. But on the other hand, they interact with the Taliban, this is a clear contradiction against the values of human and human rights.
The last word is that the people of Afghanistan expect the United Nations and other countries to consider the interaction with the Taliban based on human rights values, especially women’s rights. Otherwise, organizations and countries interacting with the Taliban will be partners in violating the rights and deprivation of the Afghan people along with the Taliban. Interaction with the Taliban means confirming the performance of the Taliban in front of the Afghan people. Interaction is possible when the values of human rights can be increased or decreased. In this case, the parties reach a common point of interaction and negotiate on it. It is important that the nature of human rights values is not changeable, that is, we cannot change the right to education, such as: “If Afghan women have less right to education than others or have less right to life or work and live less than others”, This is not possible.
The important point is that the Taliban must respect human rights without any doubt, otherwise the interaction with this group has no meaning and meaning, it is just a confirmation of the violation of human rights.
In addition to the countries and organizations, the people of Afghanistan also demand from the nations of the world to monitor the policies of their men’s governments regarding the people of Afghanistan. In dealing with the Taliban, if your men’s government does not pay attention to the human rights of the Afghan people, it means that it has not respected your rights. Don’t think that women under the Taliban rule are deprived of their human rights. It is only related to the geography of Afghanistan, but it is a clear violation of the rights of the entire women community in the world. This means that the Taliban disrespect the rights of more than three billion women in the world. In other words, the Taliban do not accept women as human beings, if they were accepted as human beings, they would respect their human rights. Let’s assume that if the Taliban were to dominate the whole world today, they would undoubtedly deprive all women of their human rights – imagine what kind of group this is! So, you nations have a responsibility to make your politicians understand that the human rights of the Afghan people are a red line in their interactions with the Taliban.
