By Jason Criss Howk

“Since they returned to power in August 2021, the Taliban are again imposing a regime of gender apartheid in Afghanistan in violation of international law, just as they did in the 1990s.

– Karima Bennoune, Professor of Law

In the December 2022 Karima Bennoune, a former UN and Amnesty International rapporteur and observer, published an article titled, “The international obligation to counter gender apartheid in Afghanistan” in the Columbia Human Rights Law Review.

I could not agree more with Bennoune’s assessment that the Taliban and Haqqani terror regime have enacted gender apartheid in Afghanistan. Similar to South African racial apartheid, a total societal separation of the sexes has been accompanied by unfair treatment of one group, women,and girls, denied education, freedom of movement, freedom of expression, and the right to seek employment.

As Dr. Bennoune notes, the regime’s apartheid system therefore “poses specific human rights problems requiring particular, heightened responses.” On top of the gender apartheid system, the Taliban have proven repeatedly they have no intention with distancing themselves from or restricting the activities of the majority of terrorists no in Afghanistan. Their ties with AQ remain strong and they have seated Haqqani terrorists in their regime leadership positions. The entire Taliban network must be designated a terrorist group by the US and international community as they have squandered every diplomatic chance given to them since the 1990s.

It is time for the United States to lead other nations in making rapid policy changes that reflect the urgency of this crisis. As the world has seen before, gender apartheid and terrorist safe-havens in Afghanistan will only worsen the humanitarian and economic crisis and damage another generation of Afghan girls and boys. The outputs of the previous gender apartheid system under the Taliban regime were economic devastation, maternal and infant mortality rates that were among the worst in the world, and the recruitment of a generation of khawarij-minded Deobandi and Wahabi inspired fighters.

So far, the words of US diplomats and envoys from other nations that value human rights have effectively done nothing to slow or reverse the re-installation of the gender apartheid system and terrorism expansion. The Taliban and Haqqani regime have proven over the decades they are shrewd negotiators—mainly because they do not negotiate. They present their demands and wait until the other side walks away empty handed. The current diplomatic dance could go on for decades more—and women and girls in Afghanistan would be no better off.   

After the July 30-31 Doha-hosted talks between the Taliban and Haqqani terror regime and the US envoys that handle Afghanistan, it was clear who won the battle. The US presented a vague statement about what topics they had raised, and a strange narrative that the terror regime was actually helping the US on counter-terrorism; counter to recent UN reports on growing terrorism and continuing deep AQ relations with the regime. The Taliban aid Haqqani regime members used the event to further their international recognition as a government body and then immediately enacted another restriction on girls by outlawing their education at the 3rd grade instead of the 6th grade level.

South African Lessons for the United States

The most important lesson from the US relationship with the South African apartheid government was that ignoring the problem would not fix it. Time is still on the side of the terror regime, they know every year they enact their apartheid system they can segregate and indoctrinate the boys into violent Islamism ideology—while rendering the girls and women incapable of reversing the radicalization, and fearing for their lives every minute of the day.

The Apartheid era in South Africa began in 1948, but instead of taking a position that supported global human rights and urging South Africa to end this racial segregation system, the US (also a segregationist nation in many states at the time) chose a soft approach. The US was partially accepting of the apartheid regime due to the anti-Communist approach of South Africa. One would be hard pressed today to find any moral reason to overlook the terror regime’s gender apartheid system over shared values.

Apartheid in South Africa was framed through a series of laws, much like the Taliban’s multiple anti-women decrees since 2021, and the Nuremburg laws in 1930’s Germany, which systematically dismantled the rights and protections of a category of people.

Under Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, and Carter the US did not take a constructive stand against the apartheid regime of South Africa. They may have rhetorically chided the racist government, but continued economic trade that enabled the regime to survive. The US also continuously defended South Africa in the UN by blocking proposed sanctions that might have hastened the collapse of apartheid. This is like the US and other nations allowing economic relations to the Taliban regime today, and not enacting tougher sanctions on more regime leaders and supporters.

Through the 1980s there was a constant growth in US-South African trade and direct investment. Even after the US pushed through their own civil rights era, they ignored the lessons from it to continue positive relations with South Africa. During this time South Africa offered the US access to critical industrial raw materials, gave the US naval basing rights, a NASA missile tracking site, and forces to fight beside the US in Korea. In contrast, geopolitical reasons would favor opposing the Taliban, which is growing close to China and Russia, and getting major diplomatic assistance from Pakistan. 

It was not until 1983, under the Reagan administration, that the US took concrete steps to disempower the apartheid government. By that time enough public outcry abroad and domestically had built to push through a real policy change. But it was not enough.

The lack of teeth in the US policy was noted by anti-apartheid leader Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Speaking to a House subcommittee in December 1984, Tutu said, 

“Apartheid is an evil as immoral and unchristian in my view as Nazism, and in my view the Reagan administration’s support in collaboration with it is equally immoral, evil, and totally unchristian, without remainder.”

Eventually, in 1986 the United States Congress enacted the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid Act (CAAA). Finally, the US would implement economic sanctions and try to assist the victims under the apartheid system via aid. This gave Reagan, Bush, and Clinton tools that could wear down the apartheid regime, which was ended in 1994 and led to the democratic election of Nelson Mandela. The US Congress today might craft a similar act to push the President into action.

At this moment in history the United States cannot overlook something as despicable and destructive as the human rights violation of gender apartheid being implemented by a regime full of terrorists. There are no excuses that should be acceptable to Americans and none will be accepted by Afghan women and girls. The actions of the terror regime are immoral and illegal. Period.

What to do in Afghanistan

When it comes to the gender Apartheid system of the Taliban and Haqqani terror regime, the US and other nations cannot wait nearly four decades to act aggressively against evil like they did in South Africa.

Here are some steps that can change the status quo in Afghanistan. They respond to the demands that the Taliban and Haqqani terrorists continue to give to diplomats. The Congress and President should lead on these actions together.

Lead the effort to declare the regime a gender apartheid system. Use every available tool that is offered by this designation to further make the regime more isolated. Continue to oppose their receiving UN credentials on the same grounds as the South African revocation, and hold senior diplomatic meetings with Afghan human rights defenders on the margins of the UN General Assembly.

Support continued UN terrorism-related sanctions on Taliban and Haqqani regime members and list even more leaders, including Supreme Leader Akhundzada, and entities such as the Ministries of Defense and Interior, and intelligence services. Every member of the regime, their families, and their known supporters in other nations should be financially sanctioned and barred from travel and education for their children outside of the country.

Expand the terrorist designations beyond members of the Haqqani and AQ terrorist groups. It has been proven repeatedly that they are key members of the Taliban regime, so the Taliban members should also be designated terrorists. It has also been proven repeatedly that the Pakistani ISI and military and many civilians in the Pakistan political world are supporters of the terror regime, it is time to heavily sanction them financially as individuals, and time to enact new rules of engagement for dealing with the Pakistani military.

Help organize the Afghan civil society that supports full human rights into governance in exile with representatives from across Afghanistan. The Taliban and Haqqani fighters quickly find and silence all political opposition inside the country, so the world needs to open a new political front. Just as Qatar and the US allowing the Taliban’s outpost in Doha shifted the political balance of power in Afghanistan, an exiled anti-apartheid and anti- terrorism governance council can change the status quo politically again. Create an envoy to anti-Taliban Afghan organizations and Afghan civil society to better support Afghanistan’s future.

Work around the terror regime’s attempt to hijack aid and reach directly to endangered and persecuted Afghans across the country. The UN mission in Afghanistan should negotiate and ensure safe passage for NGOs and IGOs providing humanitarian aid and education to Afghans, especially women. Insist that the Taliban use money it collects in taxes and customs fees on food and health services for all and report regularly via various watchdogs to the taxpayers and government leaders.

Abrogate the Doha agreement, and start cooperating with Afghans who oppose the Taliban regime on the arrest of FBI and Internationally wanted terrorists inside Afghanistan. The signers of the Doha deal have no power to enact the Taliban promises to the United States. While the US bent over backward to meet and exceed their promises, the Taliban have done the reverse. If the US does not act to arrest and bring known terrorists to justice, they are setting a dangerous precedence. Now is the time to increase various counterterrorism operations. We cannot wait for the safe-haven to become even more full of mass murderers.

The current terror regime must remain internationally unrecognized and internally illegitimate. The people in the ungoverned space of Afghanistan cannot continue to be held hostage by terrorist thugs. Without international pressure and activity, the Taliban/Haqqani gender apartheid system will get worse and the numerous other human rights violations occurring across Afghanistan will continue, serving as an example to other brutal dictatorships and extremists.

 

Author:

Jason Criss Howk is a former Defense Department Foreign Area Officer who mainly focused on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and extremist Islamist groups and terrorists in his 23-year career. He is currently the Director of Global Friends of Afghanistan, an Islamic studies professor at the Air Force Special Operations School, a guest lecturer at USMC War College, American University and Blair Academy, and a writer.