“I’m totally worried. I’ve got teenage girls in there,” she said. “Surely we have people in the U.S. government who know who to press on. We can’t fix Afghanistan, but this is one thing we can fix.”
In a statement released on Sunday, the State Department said the United States government had few resources at its disposal to force an evacuation.
“We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan,” the department said in its statement. “However, we do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace — whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region.”
Even before the Taliban takeover, Afghanistan placed near the bottom of every list when it came to protections for women, and at the top in terms of the need for any efforts that would make it possible to keep them safe.
Since they swept to power last month Taliban leaders have sought to convince the world, that the harsh rule they imposed during their last stint in power, from 1996 to 2001, was a thing of the past. But there have been multiple reports of abuse of women, and on Saturday members of the Taliban beat women in Kabul who were protesting for their rights.
“As with all Taliban commitments, we are focused on deeds not words,” the State Department said in its statement, “but we remind the Taliban that the entire international community is focused on whether they live up to their commitments.”
Reporting was contributed by Lara Jakes, Luke Broadwater, Michael Crowley, Victor J. Blue and Julian E. Barnes.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/05/world/europe/afghanistan-us-citizens-taliban.html
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