As US troops withdraw from Afghanistan, lawmakers concern darkish long run for ladies

US lawmakers grilled President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan peace envoy on Tuesday about how ladies might be safe if the hard-line Islamist Taliban take regulate after US troops withdraw, and threatened to withhold investment if rights features are reversed.

“I don’t consider below any instances that the US Senate will toughen help for Afghanistan, particularly below the International Financial institution’s program which gives price range toughen, if the Taliban has taken a governing function that ends civil society advances and rolls again ladies’s rights,” mentioned Senate Overseas Members of the family Committee Chairman Bob Menendez.

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Zalmay Khalilzad, particular envoy for Afghanistan Reconciliation, testified on the committee’s first public listening to on Afghanistan coverage since Biden introduced plans to withdraw troops through Sept. 11 after 20 years of warfare.

When Biden made his announcement on April 14, he mentioned Washington would proceed offering help to Afghan safety forces and civilian systems, together with the ones for girls and women.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned the Biden management used to be operating with Congress to offer just about $300 million in civilian help to the rustic.

Individuals of Congress, lots of whom are skeptical in regards to the plans to deliver house the two,500 ultimate troops, concern the departure would cede regulate to the Taliban, whose 1996-2001 rule significantly curtailed actions for Afghan ladies.

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Lawmakers of each events expressed considerations about rights, the possibility of civil warfare and whether or not Afghanistan would once more develop into a shelter for extremists.

“I am involved that the management’s resolution would possibly lead to a Taliban offensive that topples the federal government,” mentioned Senator Jim Risch, the committee’s most sensible Republican.

The State Division on Tuesday ordered govt staff out of its embassy in Kabul if their paintings may well be finished somewhere else, mentioning expanding violence within the Afghan capital.

The world group has poured billions into Afghanistan for the reason that Taliban used to be pushed from energy. Positive factors for girls and women in get right of entry to to training and public lifestyles are again and again touted as a big luck.

Girls were underrepresented all the way through peace talks in spite of guarantees that they might have a spot on the desk.

‘WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN REMAIN TARGETS OF VIOLENCE’

Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen, the one lady at the committee, mentioned Khalilzad, who additionally served below former Republican President Donald Trump, had now not made together with ladies sufficient of a concern.

She mentioned there used to be an excessive amount of uncertainty in regards to the plans for Afghanistan after Sept. 11 to grasp whether or not ladies’s rights could be safe. She mentioned ladies in Afghanistan stay goals of violence, one thing that should be stopped.

Shaheen referred to seven ladies who were killed through the Taliban for advocating for human rights.

“I can now not toughen any efforts that may let them proceed to devote those horrific acts with none responsibility,” Shaheen mentioned.

Khalilzad insisted Washington used to be urgent for ladies and minorities to be incorporated in long run peace talks. He mentioned Washington and spouse nations would punish backtracking in Afghanistan with isolation and sanctions.

Blinken echoed that sentiment. “I will say very obviously and categorically that an Afghanistan that doesn’t recognize their rights, that doesn’t maintain the features now we have made, might be a pariah,” he instructed CNN.

Underneath the Taliban, ladies have been barred from training or paintings, required to totally quilt their our bodies, and may just now not go away house with no male family member. “Ethical offenses” have been punished through flogging and stoning.

The Sept. 11 closing date – 20 years after the assaults that despatched Washington to warfare – prolonged the U.S. presence there past a Might 1 closing date negotiated below Trump.

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