The prospect of the Taliban returning to power by force and re-imposing their 1990s strictures on women has caused panic among many. Photo / AP
The prospect of the Taliban returning to power by force and re-imposing their 1990s strictures on women has caused panic among many. Photo / AP
The UK should join America in offering refuge to high-profile female politicians and activists under threat from the Taliban, as well as its military interpreters and embassy staff, campaigners have said.
Joe Biden's administration is considering offering fast-track visas for vulnerable liberal Afghans who may be in danger from the resurgent militants as foreign troops complete their withdrawal.
Rights groups have been asking the White House to widen its plan to protect translators who worked with foreign forces and add up to 2000 visas specifically for vulnerable women and women's advocates.
Campaigners are calling on Britain to do the same because many women who had helped the UK's nation-building efforts in the past two decades were now at risk.
"I would say the least these countries can do at the moment is try to save the lives of those who worked with them and supported them," said Fereshta Abbasi, an Afghan human rights lawyer.
Women wait inside the passport office in Kabul. Women were previously barred from working outside the home or going outdoors and even attending school. Photo / AP
"Women's rights are being seen as Western values in the eyes of the Taliban."
The prospect of the Taliban returning to power by force and re-imposing their 1990s strictures on women has caused panic among many.
Women were previously barred from working outside the home or going outdoors without a chaperone, while young girls were prevented from going to school.
The fear has been heightened by a campaign of assassinations in major cities, often targeting civil servants, journalists and activists.
Those killed include 24-year-old Fatima Khalil, who worked for the country's human rights commission.
Several female journalists or media workers also have been killed in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
While the killings are often not claimed, many fear they are the work of either the Taliban, or other conservative elements, trying to subdue or terrify their liberal opponents.
Britain has said it will give asylum to military interpreters and local staff who worked at the embassy, but has come under criticism for not doing enough.
"The UK's important - but severely limited - visa programme for Afghan citizens either currently or previously employed there by the British Government falls woefully short of what is needed, especially given the escalating risks of persecution to many Afghans at this time," said Steve Valdez-Symonds, Amnesty's refugee and migrant rights director.
Diplomats and Western aid agency staff say they are being inundated by requests from female Afghan civil servants, politicians, journalists and lawyers for help getting out of the country.
The Taliban have attempted to reassure Afghan women that they are not seeking a return to the 1990s.
Yet they have given little detail of what women would be allowed to do under their vision for an Islamic government and have often been fiercely critical of those seeking greater freedoms for women, accusing them of being Western puppets.
