Taliban Announce General Amnesty, Want Women in Government

The Taliban have declared a general amnesty for all Afghanistan government officials and have called on them to return to work. The call comes less than two days after Taliban fighters entered the Presidential Palace and declared the war in Afghanistan over. The Taliban reportedly are still negotiating a formal handover deal with the country’s political leaders.

The Associated Press reported Tuesday that senior Taliban leader Amir Khan Muttaqi was in Kabul negotiating a handover with political leaders including former President Hamid Karzai and Abdullah Abdullah, who once headed the country’s negotiating council.

Meanwhile, Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said that women should join their new government. “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims. They should be in the government structure according to Shariah law,” Samangani said. The Islamic Emirate is the Taliban’s name for Afghanistan.  He also called on “all sides” to join the new government.

During a UN Security Council meeting on Monday on the crisis in Afghanistan, the country’s UN Ambassador Ghulam Isaczai said, according to reports from Kabul residents, members of the Taliban had begun house-to-house searches looking for people who cooperated with the government. He also said that he had received reports of targeted killings and lootings in the capital city.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said he was “particularly concerned by accounts of mounting human rights violations against the women and girls of Afghanistan.” When the Taliban last ruled the country in the 1990s, women were prevented from getting an education or working in most professions, among other restrictions. Fewer women were seen on Kabul streets on Tuesday, according to reports.

US President Joe Biden, in a televised speech from the East Room of the White House Monday afternoon, said that “I stand squarely behind my decision” to pull US troops out of Afghanistan and that he would not “shrink from my share of responsibility for where we are today.” Biden acknowledged that his administration did not anticipate the quick collapse of the government in the face of the Taliban offensive. The US Democratic leadership noted that the withdrawal agreement was originally negotiated by former President Donald Trump.