Former British diplomat, Laurie Bristow, the British ambassador to Kabul at the time of the Taliban’s return to power, has warned of terrorist threats from Afghanistan against the West. Speaking to LBC, a British radio station, Mr Bristow said that before the group’s return, he had seen “no evidence of a reformed Taliban, the so-called Taliban 2.0.
Mr Bristow agreed with the British broadcaster, Andrew Marr, that the Taliban was engaged in a full on war against women. The group, he said, was “hardwiring gender apartheid in Afghanistan, which will make it much, much, harder over time for women and girls, and indeed the whole society, to thrive.”
For the former British diplomat, the West left behind a generation of Afghans who do not want the Taliban, and whom the group cannot uneducate.
The group’s recent oppressive rules on women, Mr Bristow said, had put difficult choices before donor countries. They are forced to choose between alleviating the humanitarian crisis without doing the Taliban’s work for it.
