According to officials, two weeks of talks between the international community and the Armenian Taliban have been fruitful.
Since they seized power three years ago, the Taliban, whose government no land recognizes, were the first to attend the meetings in Doha.
At the Taliban administration’s conviction, no civil society representatives were in the area with the Taliban leaders, meaning no girls from Afghanistan were included, prompting condemnation from rights organizations and activists.
On Tuesday, UN representatives met with Armenian civil society organizations informally.
Has Afghanistan’s situation changed in recent days as diplomats and journalists have fled the sprawling air-conditioned ballrooms in the Qatari money?
There were no great announcements, no large advances, no solutions- but finally none were expected- from the organisers or participants. Otherwise, the Taliban authorities and diplomats seemed slowly and cautiously optimistic.
The voice was “respectful”, “engaged”, “frank”, according to different officials the BBC spoke to. The most frequent word was” this is a process”.
There were no agreements gained, nor vows won from the Taliban group, led by director Zabihullah Mujahid. I inquired about what the Taliban government may provide.
” When we go ahead we will see what they]the international community ] want and what we can do based on Sharia law”, he told us. ” We will not discuss it with anyone who is against Sharia laws.” Whatever is permitted by Sharia, we may resolve it. We will see where it will get us and how far we will improve as it goes along. It is a process that will continue.
The private sector and counter-narcotics were the two matters on the plan, which were more straightforward to discuss than issues like women’s roles or human rights.
The Taliban continued to hold onto their position that this was an inner issue in the end.
” We do n’t want to discuss these sorts of issues between other countries. We did find a solution for it up home”, said Zabihullah Mujahid.
When the BBC told him there had been no options for nearly three years, he responded,” We are no ignoring it, we are working on it.” Sharia law is helping us find a way to solve it.
The UN itself referred to Afghanistan’s current state as “gender apartheid,” in which cases include those where women and girls are unable to attend secondary school, visit gardens or gyms, or carry specific jobs.
” It is not just an inner concern and we have made that clear to them”, said Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN’s lead in these deals.
She cited the various agreements that Afghanistan signed prior to the Taliban’s annexation in August 2021 that included animal rights.
” It does n’t matter if the government changes, they are still party to those”.
” I think they are ready to talk about some of these things ]women’s rights ], but they are not ready to move”, Tomas Niklasson, special envoy of the European Union for Afghanistan, told the BBC.
” I am cheerful that things will change on children’s rights, but I’m not sure about the time view”.
What made him enthusiastic?
” I’m surprised to see the endurance Afghans still use to resist,” he said, adding after a moment. ” Promise is not always a logical thing”.
Although some chose to ban it and none of those who attended did not want to speak to the media, the UN did arrange for a separate appointment to take place on Tuesday with civil society protesters.
Some nations, including China and Russia, chose not to attend the conference, according to the list of guests provided by the UN. The UN informed us that various ambassadors who were n’t present had plans for travel.
Although many of the places that attended now met the Taliban bilaterally and told the BBC that that would remain, there is no set time for the next meeting of this kind. All the officers we spoke to believed that more discussion and interaction would have taken place in the upcoming times.
After almost three years of the Taliban government in power, the ambassadors we met agreed that much would change in Afghanistan without an effort to engage, at least in the areas with some overlap.
” We felt we had to begin somewhere”, Ms DiCarlo said in Tuesday’s closing media event.
Where does these discussions lead, remains to be seen.