While seizing power in Afghanistan, the Taliban promised the world a new and improved version of itself that would allow women to work “shoulder to shoulder” with men. So it’s frankly shocking to see this extremist group continuing business as usual by refusing to appoint any women to the nation’s new government.
The Associated Press reports that the Taliban “failed to appoint any women” to its cabinet, “doubling down on a hard-line course despite the international outcry that followed their initial presentation of an all-male government lineup earlier this month.” A huge and surely coincidental oversight, indeed, for a group that has always denied women access to education, power, or any kind of public life at all.
The new and improved Taliban is also blocking girls from attending elementary school—though spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid promised in a press conference that the group is simply “finalizing things” and that girls will be returned to school “as soon as possible.” So there is much to look forward to, once these guys return from their Bamyan Province vacation, where the men carried rifles and rocket launchers (probably given to them by the U.S. government) onto swan paddleboats.
To be sure, the exclusion of women from everything is looking temporary. According to the AP, the Taliban “have framed their current Cabinet as an interim government, suggesting that change is still possible, but they have not said if there would ever be elections.” Perhaps at this very moment they’re recruiting a Chief Diversity Officer to take a critical look at their ranks.