Taliban claimed to have learned from past mistakes: Report

KABUL: Learning from past mistakes seems a very legitimate approach for the Taliban to pave the way for normalisation, economic recovery, and eventual recognition by the outside world, stated The Khaama Press in a report.

The Taliban, in the conversations that followed last year's Doha Peace Talks, claimed to have learned from their past mistakes.

This time, they were going to be benevolent guardians of the state, and show the West and the world what an Afghan Islamic republic could accomplish, The Khaama Press reported, adding that they said they would focus on development and on the welfare of the population.

The report further read, "Initially, things went on smoothly for the Taliban as they entered Kabul without confronting any arm clashes, and the general public was quite optimistic that things might change for the better. However, Afghanistan's interim authorities gradually started to introduce their rather strict version of governance, excluding other ethnicities, women, and youth from the government."

They postponed the opening of girls' schools for a year and later followed up with a ban on women from pursuing university education and working with non-governmental organisations.

The double whammy for Afghan women drew global condemnation of the Taliban-led regime in Afghanistan. Facing a firestorm of protest across the world, the Taliban eventually reversed its diktat and allowed women to work for aid organisations.

With the nation gripped by a persistent humanitarian crisis, a large portion of the country's population relies on humanitarian aid.

After the ban on women employees working at NGOs, several aid groups ceased their operations in Afghanistan.

"The country's de facto authorities' recent conservative moves have raised the anger of the internal and external stakeholders to a great extent, possibly leading the country to further isolation," The Khaama Press reported.

The report further read, "So far, no single country has recognised the interim government of the Taliban, which is considered a great challenge for the ruling regime. Besides not having internal legitimacy or external recognition, imposing such harsh restrictions would not bring any good to the status quo."

Several people in Afghanistan are battling hunger and lack of basic amenities since the Taliban took control of the country in August last year, TOLO news reported. In a recent report released by 'Save the Children', a global NGO working for underprivileged children, said Afghanistan has more than 6.6 million people battling hunger.

"The country with the highest number of people facing severe levels of hunger was Afghanistan, where this number increased to 6.6 million in 2022 from 2.5 million in 2019," 'Save the Children' said in its report.

According to the analysis based on Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) data, countries with the highest numbers of people experiencing emergency and catastrophic levels of hunger and malnutrition between 2019 and 2022 were Afghanistan, Central African Republic, DRC, Haiti, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen.