Zahra Joya’s moving piece reminds us that our interventions in Afghanistan created an expectation, and obligation, to support those who share our values (Women in Afghanistan are fighting an unequal war. We need your support, 6 September). It is an obligation we have often shirked, from the scandal of the way we treated our interpreters and local staff to our abandonment of the Afghan regime in 2021; nowhere is this more stark though in the way that Afghan women and girls have been betrayed.
Given that no one sensible is going to launch a military intervention to overthrow the regime, the issue is: what can be done?
As a country, we should amend our Afghan civilian resettlement scheme to include all female students thrown out of university and offer them places to study here. We should also, using the BBC World Service, set up a comprehensive distance-learning package to educate girls and women, against the day that this abominable regime is overthrown or amends its ways. Finally, through pressure on Pakistan – the only country to which the Taliban will listen – we may persuade them to see sense.
The situation is desperate, but there are things we can do and should.
Simon Diggins
Defence attaché, Kabul 2008-10
