Criticism of Taliban Visit to the Ministry of the Interior
"We criticize the meeting with representatives of a system where human rights are trampled on and where women and girls are systematically discriminated against," said the SPÖ women after the Taliban visit to the Interior Ministry. "It is extremely dangerous if Austria opens the door to the Taliban," the Greens joined in the criticism.
Taliban Visit to the Interior Ministry Shortly After Headscarf Ban Decision
In a protest note addressed to the Interior Minister and signed by SPÖ Federal Women's Managing Director Ruth Manninger and Karner's government colleague, Women's Minister Eva-Maria Holzleitner, it states that women and girls in Afghanistan are "excluded from social, political, economic, and legal life. Women and girls are forced to completely cover themselves in public. Women and girls are stripped of their dignity."
It also seemed peculiar that the Taliban were received on the very day after "especially from the ÖVP - the headscarf ban for girls under 14 was praised as empowerment for girls and in the interest of child welfare. Is dignity and child welfare only important for Austrian girls? Are human rights not indivisible?" The SPÖ women also see an "irritating signal towards our democratic community of values" in the date of the meeting: On the anniversary of the September 11 attacks in New York.
Receiving a regime "that disenfranchises women and girls, persecutes dissidents, and tramples on all fundamental rights makes one complicit in their inhumane policies," said the Green security spokeswoman Agnes Sirkka Prammer in a statement. Austria should not give a platform to the Taliban regime, which is not recognized by the UN as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and whose representatives are on numerous terror lists, said Prammer, announcing a parliamentary inquiry.
Interior Ministry Considers Talks with Taliban Necessary
Talks and cooperation between the Afghan administration and the Federal Office for Immigration and Asylum are necessary to implement the deportation of criminals to Afghanistan, the Interior Ministry justified the meeting on Thursday. It was also emphasized that the delegation supported the BFA in identifying individuals in preparation for deportations. This involves more than 20 people. "The goal is clear: to deport convicted Afghan criminals to their home country to protect women from crime," a spokesperson for Karner stated in writing to the APA. Officials from the BFA had visited Afghanistan at the beginning of the year.
"Anyone who seriously wants to protect the people in Austria must also pragmatically provide solutions," added ÖVP General Secretary Nico Marchetti on Friday. The Interior Ministry acted "responsibly and in Austria's interest by establishing communication channels on a technical-operational level." To derive complicity in "inhumane policies in their country of origin from this is a misinterpretation of the issue and shows a lack of sensitivity for the victims of criminal asylum seekers," Marchetti countered the criticism.
(APA/Red)
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