Women in Afghanistan could be forced back into the dark ages

As General Mark Milley, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, commented the other day, he has no idea what is going to happen when the US troops have left Afghanistan. That is pretty much the view of everyone in the Biden administration. No one really knows how the Taliban will react once they know they can do what they want without having the Americans breathing down their neck. The exception is the US National Intelligence Council, the body that represents the director of national intelligence in assessing policy vis a vis classified information. The NIC wrote a report in early April which warned that if the Taliban were to take over power in Afghanistan the rights of women could be set back two decades. This is such a depressingly dismal prospect for the millions of women and girls of school age who have actually benefited from having the troops of 36 nations roaming around for the last 20 years. They have blossomed because they could emerge from their Taliban brutally-enforced purdah and get educated, apply for jobs, even go into politics. All of that could be swept aside if the Taliban once again rule in Kabul, says the NIC in an unclassified version of its report out today. The Taliban told American negotiators in Qatar that women would be allowed to have a life and work and get educated provided they wore veils. But no one should ever believe what the Taliban say or promise, and it's clear the NIC certainly doesn't. I wonder how Joe Biden responded when he was warned by his intelligence advisers that the future for women in Afghanistan would be bleak if he ordered all US troops out of Afghanistan. I suspect that both Trump and Biden night share the same view: The US didn't send thousands of troops to Afghanistan to save Afghan women. But the trouble is, having sent so many troops, one of the positive outcomes was that women were born again and for the first time for years could enjoy life without the fear of being publicly abused and beaten. The Taliban have recently been targeting women in prominent roles, assassinating them, and thus demonstrating that they have not changed one iota since the time when they were in power. From September 11 onwards girls and women in Afghanistan face a scary future. And I doubt any over-the-horizon US force will be sent in to save them.