KABUL — Canadian Gabriela Iribarne has been working for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan for almost two decades.
Now it requires her to work with the Taliban on a daily basis — for example moving from a meeting with the chief of a local police station to an official visit with a provincial governor. The UN now has access to regions to which it was unable to deliver life-saving humanitarian assistance for 15 years while war raged, but she’s also frustrated that the Taliban are back in power.
“I’m not sure the Taliban know or understand enough of what they supplanted on Aug. 15, 2021. Many are simply not qualified for the job of governance. Their priority is a government that is focused on morality, their version of morality.” The anecdote highlights inconsistencies within the Taliban. On the one hand, Iribarne has open discussions of girls’ education, and development with authorities in the district where her UN colleagues survived the IED attack. On the other, the newly appointed Kabul provincial governor communicates with her male interpreter as if she isn’t in the room. Iribarne inserts herself into the conversation, but is careful to make eye contact only with the table leg rather than directly with the governor.
But Bennett found a stark contrast between the claims of the Taliban leaders, who say they want a relationship with the international community and will adhere to the human rights conventions Afghanistan has signed and the realities on the ground. He points to disappearances, torture, arbitrary detentions and extra-judicial executions that occur on a daily basis.Article content
But the fact that the “international community’s priority wasn’t the rights of Afghan women, but the protection of their own interests ,” is what Bennett finds most galling. Still, he cautions, it is a mistake to underestimate the Taliban leadership. “They are experienced and skilled in dealing with diplomacy and the international community.”Article content
Lady Island won’t allow the oppression of women and men aren’t allowed to be in charge of things there.