Taliban Demands For Afghan Billions Frozen Abroad

Afghanistan’s Taliban government has called for the release of billions of dollars of central bank reserves, given the nation’s current economic crisis. The drought-stricken nation has been faced with severe cash crunch, mass starvation and a new migration crisis. There is however, a need to fund the restoration of the nation’s economic stance.

Earlier, Afghanistan had deposited billions of dollars in assets overseas with the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks in Europe. Unfortunately, since the Islamist Taliban displaced the Western-backed government in August, the deposits has been frozen.

Under the Taliban rule that spanned from 1996-2001, women were largely relegated to the background. They were completely denied of paid employment and education. Relatively, whenever they left home, they had to cover their faces and be accompanied by a male relative. In the quest for the Afghan billions, the Taliban government pledged to uphold human rights, including the education of women, a strategy to be heard.

A spokesman for the Finance Ministry, Ahmad Wali Haqmal revealed that the government planned to be more reasonable and that the money should just be given to them. “The money belongs to the Afghan nation. Just give us our own money. Freezing this money is unethical and is against all international laws and values,” he said.

Switching back to the main reason for the money request, a central bank official called on European countries, including Germany. to release their share of the reserves in order to salvage the gross economic breakdown the country is currently faced with, which could trigger mass migration to Europe and its environs.

A board member of the Afghan Central Bank, Shah Mehrabi, described the situation. He said: “The situation is desperate and the amount of cash is dwindling. There is enough right now … to keep Afghanistan going until the end of the year. Europe is going to be affected most severely, if Afghanistan does not get access to this money,” Mehrabi added.

Haqmal from the Finance Ministry noted that the ministry had a daily tax take of roughly 400 million Afghanis ($4.4 million). He also added that although, Afghanistan would allow women education, they will not share the same classrooms with men. He explained that human rights will be given the chance to reign, however, gay rights are not within the framework of Islamic law.

“LGBT… That’s against our Sharia law,” he said.

Source: Reuters