'Please let us on the bus': Heartbreak on Kabul airport convoy
KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghans aboard a convoy of buses that was given a Taliban escort to Kabul's airport spoke Sunday of the heartbreak of driving past huge crowds desperate to join them.
Tens of thousands of people are gathered around the airport north of the capital in the hope of getting a flight out of the country as an evacuation run by the US military continues in chaos.
People have been crushed to death in the melee, while images of a family handing a child over a wall to a soldier — and of young men clinging to the side of a military plane as it rolled down the runway for takeoff — have shocked the world.
A journalist aboard the convoy that left a downtown hotel early Sunday told AFP a huge crowd was camped at an intersection close to the airport — many sleeping in the open.
Families hoping for a miracle escape were crowded between the barbed-wire boundaries of an unofficial no man's land separating Taliban fighters from US troops and the remnants of an Afghan special forces brigade helping them.
"As soon as they saw our convoy they got up and ran towards the buses," he said.
"They were showing us their passports or other documents... One man came to my window with wife and child and waved his passport saying 'I have a British visa, but can't get in. Please let us on the bus'."
There have been reports of the Taliban stopping, harassing and even detaining Afghans trying to flee, but the reporter said his convoy passed largely without incident.
"The didn't care about us," he said.
'One day, you'll thank me'
The United States — and other nations — had plans to offer sanctuary this year to tens of thousands of Afghans following Washington's decision to withdraw all its troops from the country.
Those offered the chance of a new life abroad mostly included Afghans who had worked for foreign forces during the 20-year occupation that followed the ousting of the Taliban in the wake of the September 11 attacks.
But those plans were thrown into disarray by the Taliban's devastating rout of Afghan forces, and their return to power last weekend.
"Everybody had a reason to leave," the journalist on the convoy told AFP.
"Some were journalists, others women university students... then there were those who worked with foreigners."
One girl was in tears at the hotel before the convoy set off.
"The day the Taliban came, I knew life was over for me in Afghanistan." she said.
"Living under their rule would mean burying all my ambitions in life."
Those on the convoy were now waiting for their turn to be evacuated to the West -- via a coronavirus isolation camp in Qatar.
"My children are crying because they are exhausted, but I am telling them hang on a bit more for the flight to come and then we are saved," said Haji Hamid, with his wife and four youngsters in tow.
"Death and oppression would be stalking us if we stayed," he said.
"I keep telling them 'one day, you'll thank me'."
Get the latest news as Taliban gains control of Afghanistan. Photo courtesy of Al Jazeera/AFP
Afghanistan's supreme leader said Sunday the country's women were being saved from "traditional oppressions" by the adoption of Islamic governance and their status as "free and dignified human beings" restored.
In a statement marking this week's Eid al-Adha holiday, Hibatullah Akhundzada -- who rarely appears in public and rules by decree from the Taliban's birthplace in Kandahar -- said steps had been taken to provide women with a "comfortable and prosperous life according to Islamic Sharia".
The United Nations expressed "deep concern" last week that women were being deprived of their rights under Afghanistan's Taliban government and warned of systematic gender apartheid.
Since returning to power in August 2021, Taliban authorities have stopped girls and women from attending high school or university, banned them from parks, gyms and public baths, and ordered them to cover up when leaving home.
They have also barred them from working for the UN or NGOs, while most female government employees have been dismissed from their jobs or are being paid to stay at home.
However, Akhundzada said "necessary steps have been taken for the betterment of women as half of the society".
"All institutions have been obliged to help women in securing marriage, inheritance and other rights," his statement read. — AFP
UN chief Antonio Guterres will gather international envoys at a secret location in Doha on Monday in an increasingly desperate bid to find ways to influence Afghanistan's Taliban rulers. — AFP
The UN Security Council adopted a resolution Thursday calling on Taliban authorities to "swiftly reverse" all restrictive measures against women, condemning in particular its ban on Afghan women working for the United Nations.
The resolution, unanimously adopted by all 15 Council members, said the ban announced in early April "undermines human rights and humanitarian principles."
More broadly, the Council called on the Taliban government to "swiftly reverse the policies and practices that restrict the enjoyment by women and girls of their human rights and fundamental freedoms."
It cited access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and "women's full, equal and meaningful participation in public life."
The Council also urged "all States and organizations to use their influence" to "promote an urgent reversal of these policies and practices." — AFP
G7 foreign ministers on Tuesday demanded the "immediate reversal" of a ban on women in Afghanistan working for non-governmental organisations and the United Nations.
"We call for the immediate reversal of unacceptable decisions restricting human rights and fundamental freedoms, including the latest bans prohibiting Afghan women from working for NGOs and the UN," the top diplomats said in a statement after two days of talks in Japan.
The group also slammed the Taliban authorities' "systematic abuses of human rights of women and girls and discrimination against the members of religious and ethnic minorities".
Taliban authorities triggered international outrage this month after extending a December ban on Afghan women working for non-governmental organisations to include the UN.
They have rejected criticism over the move, saying it is an internal issue that should be "respected by all sides." — AFP
The United Nations is being forced to make an "appalling choice" over whether to continue operations in Afghanistan while the Taliban government bans women from working for the organisation, the world body says.
Under their austere interpretation of Islam, Taliban authorities have imposed a slew of restrictions on Afghan women since seizing power in 2021, including banning them from higher education and many government jobs.
In December, they banned Afghan women from working for domestic and foreign non-governmental organisations, and on April 4 extended that to UN offices across the country.
In a statement Tuesday, the UN mission in Afghanistan said the ban was "unlawful under international law, including the UN Charter, and for that reason the United Nations cannot comply".
"Through this ban, the Taliban de facto authorities seek to force the United Nations into having to make an appalling choice between staying and delivering in support of the Afghan people and standing by the norms and principles we are duty-bound to uphold," it said. — AFP
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