The Taliban Dilemma: How to Engage with Those Whose Values We Oppose

“In this instance, should those who believe in the rights of women sit down with those who do not, potentially risking legitimizing groups like the Taliban, in the hope that through dialogue they can influence them?”

There is a shrine in the village of Karez, fifty miles to the northwest of Kandahar City in Afghanistan, the land the West is trying to forget. It commemorates a hero who rallied the Pashtun fighters during the Battle of Maiwand in 1880, one of the key battles of the Second Anglo-Afghan War, a war fought by British-Indian forces attempting to keep Afghanistan free from Russian influence. According to folklore, a hero took the Afghan flag after the flag-bearer had fallen and urged the Pashtun warriors on. Today, there are still schools, clinics, and other public institutions in Afghanistan named after this brave Pashtun. This hero, credited with decisively swinging the battle, was a woman. And she became known as Malalai of Maiwand. She is the spiritual predecessor of the many brave female soldiers, policewomen, and civil servants who worked alongside coalition forces, such as those in the Female Tactical Platoon, who partnered with American special forces, searching and questioning women and children on high-risk nighttime missions.

However, most of the platoon has now resettled in the United States, and the Afghan delegation attending the recent United Nations (UN) conference on Afghanistan in Doha, Qatar, from June 30th to July 1st, did not contain any women. Afghanistan was represented by members of the Taliban, who have brought in a raft of restrictions on women, including bans on the education of girls, bans on being out in public without a male escort, and decrees on strict dress codes. The conference occurred days after Afghan women accused the Taliban of sexual assault after arrests for “bad hijab.” Whether to include the Taliban in meetings set up to advance international engagement on Afghanistan raises important questions, ones made even more important due to the geopolitical transition we are living through.

The fragmenting of the prevailing system of international rules-based order that emerged from the nuclear ashes of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the signing of death warrants in Nuremberg, built on the foundations of the United Nations Charter and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, is accelerating. We are moving into a multi-matrixed world, in which states are developing complex new relationships with various and sometimes contradictory partners on security, trade, and energy. Alliances are entered into with both states and non-state actors. At the same time, the last prophets espousing the hubristic belief that Western democratic liberalism is the single best way of living (and will be adopted by all who are exposed to it) are now preaching to empty benches. Surviving in this multi-matrixed world will bring interests and values into conflict, as well as force harsh calculations. Foreign policy realists will assert that now—more than ever—we must deal with those whose values come into conflict with ours, while some will, all the while, argue that our supposed values have always been lightly held when it comes to Western foreign policy.

In this instance, should those who believe in the rights of women sit down with those who do not, potentially risking legitimizing groups like the Taliban, in the hope that through dialogue they can influence them?

One experienced campaigner for women’s rights who thinks dialogue is the best approach is Sunita Viswanath. Viswanath, who lives in the United States, is the co-founder of Women for Afghan Women. When she visited Afghanistan in 2022, she met with the leader of a women’s non-governmental organization (NGO). This aid worker, whose name is withheld for her safety, opposed the Taliban but recognized that it was necessary to negotiate with the group to secure the safety of the women her charity supports. During the visit, she spoke of her awareness that things could change quickly, and, since then, they certainly have.

In December of that year, women were banned from working in NGOs. In 2023, women were banned by the Taliban from working with UN agencies. Viswanath was told by the aid worker, “Whatever else they may be, the Taliban are Afghan…they gave us back our dignity, and we are no longer an occupied land.” While going on to express her pessimism and concerns for her safety she indicated, “I am glad that we Afghans will finally have the fight we need to have amongst ourselves. My Islam gives me all the rights I need. Theirs takes my rights away. Which Islam will win? We will see.”