Baktash Siavash, a former member of Afghanistan\u2019s House of Representatives, says European countries\u2019 rapprochement with the Taliban, while Afghan women are denied education, work and participation in public life, could help normalise the group\u2019s repression and restrictions.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Oct. 23, he told a meeting with members of the European Parliament that European countries should not engage with an administration in order to return some asylum-seekers, describing it as part of a broader global network of \u201cextremism.\u201d Siavash said this approach was incompatible with Europe\u2019s claims to defend freedom, justice and equality.<\/p>\n
Siavash stressed that the people of Afghanistan do not want military intervention, because they have already experienced its consequences with their lives, land and future; however, opposition to military intervention should not mean accepting the normalisation of Taliban repression under the guise of diplomacy.<\/p>\n
He asked how Europe can speak at the same time about justice, freedom and human values while engaging with the Taliban, when millions of Afghan women are deprived of their basic rights. Siavash said human rights and women\u2019s rights should not be subject to countries\u2019 political calculations, warning that engagement with injustice can turn into complicity in it.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThe regime that has today found an opportunity to grow and expand is, in the very places and institutions you have put at its disposal, one that may tomorrow force you to pay the price for this decision.\u201d Siavash said Europe had been warned about the dangers of this approach, and if its consequences become clear in the future, the people of Afghanistan should not be blamed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former Afghan MP Baktash Siavash warns that Europe\u2019s engagement with the Taliban could normalise repression against women and minorities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}