Dealing with the Taliban, securing female rightsーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
this August marks four years since the Taliban regained power in Afghanistan no country has recognized the group as the legitimate Afghan government mainly due to concerns over human rights violations but recently some countries have been exploring improved relations with the Taliban one of them is Russia in March 2024 it was hit by a terrorist attack reportedly linked to the Islamic State militant group based in Afghanistan moscow encouraged the Taliban to take strong measures against the group in return the Kremlin removed the Taliban from Russia’s register of terrorist organizations for the first time since 2003 china also took a step toward de facto recognition when President Xi Jinping accepted the credentials of an ambassador sent by the Taliban in January last year beijing may have had Afghanistan’s natural resources in mind meanwhile the United States has its own ambitions it hopes to again use the Bagram air base which was once operated by the US military and returned to Afghanistan the aim is to boost the US presence in the region we’re going to keep Bram air base we aren’t going to give that up because it’s 1 hour away from China 1 hour you know who occupies it now china now we’re joined by Yamamoto Tadamichi a former diplomat who represented the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan great to have you with us it’s nice to be with you so Mr yamamoto it seems the situation for the Taliban is changing can you tell us more about the group’s relations with the outside world yes the relationship of those countries with Afghanistan and the Taliban depends on how they assess the situation and how they look at their policy toward and the relationship with Afghanistan particularly for the future those countries in the neighborhood have to maintain the relationship day today they so naturally their leadership would become more pragmatic as you have seen in the video uh but even they uh have not recognized Taliban officially because of mainly of relationship of the issue of Afghan women’s education girls education now uh those countries which are far removed tend to take much more principled approach and so they haven’t recognized Taliban and the biggest hurdle is the girls education which brings us to our next report the Taliban has barred women and girls from going to school beyond sixth grade even though many are eager to study some of the images and voices have been altered to protect people’s identities many women have turned to so-called underground schools established to provide them with secondary education this one is made to look like a madasa or Islamic religious school to avoid the eyes of the Taliban about 500 women here study English math and practical skills such as handiccrafts free church after completing a six month program they celebrate with the feast the father came to continue my education and in this course but now unfortunately in this course I can learn many different subjects and it’s a reason for happiness girls just in it seems like a silver lining but it’s far from enough situation is still precarious both financially and in terms of safety a local group representative is calling for more support I ask uh again from the people of Japan and other countries please don’t forot the uh women in Afghanistan especially g girls in Afghanistan and please don’t uh leave alone on us japan was actively providing a grassroots support in Afghanistan even before the Taliban’s return this non-governmental organization has been backing the school operator financially mario who heads the organization has been providing support to Afghanistan for over 10 years he says he’s motivated to help female students there i want our group to continue working with local schools to provide students with hope mr yamamoto why do you think it’s so hard to provide education for women and girls in Afghanistan first of all I think it is important to recognize that the promotion of uh and safeguarding of women’s rights is critically important uh in Afghanistan too particularly for their future development and for their own society uh and education is very important part of that i recently had a chance of speaking with a top official of the United Nations who had just been to Afghanistan and had met with Afghan women uh this person told me that the Afghan women look at the situation bit differently um maybe we should look at Afghania as a society uh of like feudal times uh or or middle ages perhaps where the community had their own importance and the women had the role is really confined to home and many women I we were I was told look at the situation like that so in order to promote women’s rights and also particularly education we have to find a way of making these women understand that it is necessary that’s something that they can acceptable in society so now is there a role that Japan can play to help spread the importance of education there yes certainly uh Japan has a huge credibility with the Afghan people and including Taliban because of what we have done over the past 20 years in helping their livelihood in agriculture and in helping their life to get better so Japan has really uh uh acceptable uh opportunity and we can help uh by supporting for instance NGO’s work there and also perhaps to create the kind of clearing house for information for girls education where the uh information from around the globe can be gathered and shared and understood well thank you so much for your insights Mr
Some four years after the Taliban retook power in Afghanistan, no country has recognized the group as the legitimate government. But some are looking to improve relations, despite human rights concerns.
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