Taliban Bar Girls’ Return to School in Afghanistan

Welcome to today’s Morning Brief, where we’re looking at the delayed return of girls to secondary education in Afghanistan; Ukraine’s success in retaking a strategic town near its capital, Kyiv; U.S. President Joe Biden’s trip to Europe; and more news worth following from around the world.

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Afghanistan’s girls were due to return to school today, seven months after many were frozen out following the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021. And many of them did—for a few hours at least, until a last-minute government announcement postponing their return caught the world by surprise. The Taliban said schools would reopen for female students only when the government had decided on the appropriate uniform for girls, one in line with “sharia law and Afghan tradition.”

The new authorities had blamed the ban on the coronavirus pandemic initially, closing schools for two months before allowing boys, along with girls under age 12, to return. Today would have been a milestone—sending almost all secondary age girls back to education, albeit with new Taliban-imposed restrictions on dress code and a shortage of female teachers. (Girls in the southern Kandahar region had been told to wait until next month for schools to open, though even that plan is now up in the air.)

Despite the international community demanding equal education as a prerequisite to recognizing the new government’s legitimacy, the Taliban have denied that their initial move to reopen schools had anything to do with external pressure. “We are not reopening the schools to make the international community happy, nor are we doing it to gain recognition from the world,” Aziz Ahmad Rayan, an education ministry spokesperson, told AFP. “We are doing it as part of our responsibility to provide education and other facilities to our students.”

Whatever the motive, it adds to the malaise in a country that has experienced a steep decline from already perilous circumstances as its overlapping financial and economic crises, coupled with a drought and rising food and fuel prices, have further eroded living standards.

The United Nations estimates that 95 percent of Afghans are not getting enough food and said the number facing acute hunger has risen from 14 million people last July to 23 million people in March. That insecurity is already killing the most vulnerable: More than 13,000 babies born prematurely are thought to have died already this year, according to one health ministry estimate.

David Miliband, chief executive of the International Rescue Committee, has criticized the “starvation policy” he charges the international community with implementing since the Taliban takeover and has suggested fixes—from using the World Bank to pay public sector workers to greater clarification on sanctions policy to jump-starting the Afghan banking system.

As Afghanistan stands in urgent need of cash, U.S. President Joe Biden moved in February to allow just half of the $7 billion in Afghan central bank reserves held in the United States to be used for humanitarian efforts, with the other half set aside to settle cases where U.S. victims of terrorism have sued the previous Taliban government, a decision met with outrage when it was announced.

Khalid Payenda, Afghanistan’s last finance minister before the Taliban’s return, said that decision pales in comparison to the $8 billion in annual aid that effectively vanished. “The aid cutoff has had a far more devastating impact than the freeze on assets,” Payenda, who now moonlights as a Washington-area Uber driver, told the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft in an interview.

At the end of this month, the British, German, and Qatari governments will co-host an international pledge drive to make up for some of that aid shortfall. The United Nations estimates that $4.4 billion is needed in 2022 to “avert even worse disaster.”

It’s not just external pressures wreaking havoc; the Taliban can still cause enough damage on their own. As Lynne O’Donnell writes in Foreign Policy, the group is embracing old tactics—including arbitrary arrests and extrajudicial killings—as its government tightens control.

Ukraine retakes key town. Ukrainian officials announced they had retaken the town of Makariv near Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital. The strategically valuable town is approximately 40 miles from the capital. An AP report noted that Ukraine has regained control over an important highway that could stop Russian forces from attacking the capital from the northwest.

The Kremlin, for its part, seems to be conceding that its invasion is not going to plan. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, admitted in an interview with journalist Christiane Amanpour that Moscow has not yet met its military objectives in Ukraine. When asked what Putin had achieved, he replied: “Well, first of all, not yet. He hasn’t achieved yet.”

Biden heads to Europe. Biden leaves for Brussels today as he prepares to attend a summit of European Union heads of state and government followed by a meeting of NATO leaders on Thursday. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said both Europe and the United States would announce a new package of sanctions targeting Russia on Thursday as well as a call for “joint action” on addressing Europe’s energy security and reducing reliance on Russian oil and gas.

IEA energy and climate ministers meet. U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm chairs a meeting of energy and climate ministers from International Energy Agency member states. U.S. climate envoy John Kerry will also attend proceedings, which will focus on addressing “today’s urgent energy security challenges, including the importance of accelerating the clean energy transition as a key part of the solution.”

Trudeau’s new deal. Canada’s ruling Liberal Party has signed a deal with the smaller New Democratic Party to help Prime Minister Justin Trudeau stay in power for the full length of his four-year term, strengthening his position after a shaky performance in September 2021’s snap election. The New Democrats changed their position from supporting Trudeau on a case-by-case basis to a more long-term vision as the two parties agreed to deals on social and climate policy, which include a plan to rapidly phase out fossil fuel financing.

Chile’s new constitution. Chile’s constitutional assembly has extended the deadline to produce the first draft of its new constitution from April to July; 84 articles have been approved so far, including the right to abortion, but more proposals are still under consideration by the 155-person assembly. Chileans will vote to either approve or reject the draft document in a referendum later this year.

Correction, March 23, 2022: A previous version misstated the total number of people in Chile’s constitutional assembly.