TALKING WITH the TALIBAN

Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan last August, the country’s economy has shrunk by 40%, and 23 million citizens have been left facing potential starvation.

Afghanistan is facing a humanitarian crisis, yet Afghans now feel abandoned by the West. They have been caught in a carrot-and-stick approach by the international community, which is using nearly US$10 billion of foreign aid as a bargaining chip. The Taliban has been told the frozen money will be released only if the regime agrees to meet certain commitments.

One of those commitments concerns female education. Although most primary schools, some secondary schools and now universities have reopened since the Taliban takeover, it is estimated millions of girls have yet to resume their schooling.

The director of a United Nations fund dedicated to education in emergency situations, Yasmine Sherif, believes at least US$1 billion will be needed over the next three years to help remedy this. Among other things, the money will be needed to help pay teachers she says are currently working without pay.

Another problem is that many Afghan educators are in exile and in hiding, because their support for girls’ education has placed them squarely in the Taliban’s crosshairs.

The international community faces a dilemma: would ramping up its engagement with the Taliban actually be more productive than wielding such a big stick?

Nasir Kaihan is just 34 but speaks as if burdened by a life of half-met aspirations. The American-educated Unesco