Days after the Taliban took over the capital of Afghanistan, women were staying indoors.
The Taliban have repeatedly said that women’s rights will be protected under their rule, with Taliban leaders promising to treat women with respect and within Sharia law. But it is clear that many Afghan women are terrified about their future.
Dozens of demonstrators staged a rally outside the United Nations’ Geneva compound to call for respect for women and freedom of expression. They held up banners reading “We want peace” and “Make the Afghan people count!”
Under the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic law, women must cover their body head to toe and are denied many basic freedoms.
At an appearance Tuesday in Jacksonville, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida, said he’s very concerned about national security.
“Al Qaeda intends to return. They intend to rebuild and they intend to threaten us again. We can’t allow that to happen. This administration has to come up with a plan to prevent that from happening, and that’s the one thing I have been focused on. And we, not just me but others, Democrats and Republicans, I’ve been talking to the administration about this for months now. What is your plan to prevent Al Qaeda from returning? It’s really important come forward with that,” Rubio said.
Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper blames President Joe Biden for the chaos in the country.
“The fact is President Biden owns this. He owns the mess, the catastrophe that has been created over the past several weeks, couple of weeks, and should own up to it. And really, at this point, we have to remedy the situation,” Esper said.
The White House says American lives were on the line if the military stayed longer.
”What has unfolded over the past month has proven decisively that it would have taken a significant American troop presence multiple times greater than what President Biden was handed to stop a Taliban onslaught and we would have taken (American) casualties,” said National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
The Afghan president has fled the country, and the Taliban installed themselves inside the presidential palace.
Kabul’s airport was reopened for evacuation flights under the protection of foreign forces, including thousands of American soldiers.