Taliban appoint 27 new officials in cabinet extension, omit women again
Kabul, Nov 23 (EFE).- The Taliban on Tuesday announced the appointment of 27 new members to the interim government of Afghanistan, including a cabinet reshuffle and nominations at other high posts, without naming any women members despite international criticism in this regard.
According to the appointments, announced on Twitter by Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, Shahabuddin Delavar, member of the group’s negotiating team in Doha, has been named as the minister of mining and petroleum.
Fateh Ullah Mansour, son of Taliban’s former second-in-command Akhtar Muhammad Mansour – who died in a United States airstrike in 2016 – has been named as the head of the airport in the southern city of Kandahar.
The appointments have rekindled criticism against the Taliban for the lack of inclusion in their leadership after they seized control of Kabul in Aug. 15 in a rapid offensive as US and NATO forces withdrew from the country.
“The Taliban government still has members which are blacklisted by the international community as terrorists. They have not considered women, political parties and different ethnic groups of Afghanistan,” political analyst Fahim Kohdamani told EFE.
The fundamentalists have appointed a government that largely consists of religious leaders and members of the group, most of them from the Pashtun community, while there is hardly any representation of other communities or social sectors.
“These are the causes of their government not gaining legitimacy,” Kohdamani stressed.
Similarly, women continue to remain absent despite the Taliban having promised to include them in appointments.
“Against all their promises to the international community that women can work in the government, the Taliban have not included a female in their entire cabinet,” influential former lawmaker and Afghan activist Fawzia Koofi told EFE.
Koofi, who heads the Change Party, said that the fundamentalists had “banned an entire generation of qualified and educated” women from participating in the government and public life.
