The decision of the taliban to close secondary schools in Afghanistan “raises doubts” about their determination to keep their promises and still an obstacle important for its international recognition, a senior European official said on Thursday.
At the end of March, the Taliban closed the doors of schools and high schools to the girlsjust hours after its long-announced reopening.
This shift, ordered by the supreme leader of the movement and the country, Hibatullah Akhundzada, provoked the outrage of the international community.
The Taliban, in power since August, did not propose a new date for the reopening of schools.
The special envoy of the European Union in Afghanistan, Tomas Niklasson, estimated on Thursday that this change in attitude “raises doubts about the credibility of his promises and about his reliability as a partner.”
“It seems to be a government that doesn’t listen to its people,” he said after a five-day visit to Kabul.
“What women ask is not to be told how to dress, but how to feed their families, how to go to school, how to access the health system, how to find work,” she added.
The international community links the humanitarian and financial aid that Afghanistan desperately needs to the Taliban’s respect for human rights, particularly for women, with respect to education and work.
“If the country’s schools were opened relatively soon at all levels for boys and girls, it would be a very positive development,” Niklasson said.
It would mean “a radical change” which, if accompanied by guarantees of respect for the rights of minorities and women, would help the Taliban’s cause in its quest for international recognition, he said.
No country has yet recognized the new Afghan regime.
For the time being, the EU regrets that the trend in Afghanistan is towards “regression and regression in various sectors”.