Well, that’ll show ‘em. Liz Truss has released a joint statement with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken declaring themselves ‘united in our condemnation of the Taliban’s decision not to reopen secondary schools to Afghan girls’. Also united are the EU high representative and the foreign ministers of Canada, France, Italy, Japan and Norway. The authorities in Afghanistan issued an order earlier this week suspending the planned return to school of female pupils, citing the need for a decision on uniforms for girls that are compliant with ‘Sharia law and Afghan tradition’. Team Euro-America: World Police say the Taliban’s U-turn ‘contradicted its public assurances to the Afghan people and to the international community’. I don’t know what the world’s coming to. If you can’t trust the Taliban, who can you trust?
The statement concludes with a flourish: ‘Every Afghan citizen, boy or girl, man or woman, has an equal right to an education at all levels, in all provinces of the country.’ Really?
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