More than 20 civil society organisations, in an open letter to German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, have called for an end to Germany’s engagement with the Taliban and for the full implementation of Germany’s commitments to admit Afghan citizens. The letter was handed to the foreign minister during his visit to the city of Kiel by Helen Rake, Lini Hintze from the organisation Don’t Forget Afghanistan, and Farangis Sogand and Lava Mohammadi from the organisation Afghans’ Participation in Schleswig-Holstein, on behalf of more than 20 civil society organisations. Farangis Sogand, a poet and women’s rights activist, said Germany was legitimising the Taliban by receiving the group’s representatives. She said the signatories were therefore calling for an immediate end to all cooperation with the Taliban. The signatories also called on Germany not to recognise the Taliban, not to accept the group’s representatives as diplomats in Germany, to recognise the Taliban’s treatment of women as “gender apartheid”, and to make human rights a non-negotiable principle in its policy towards Afghanistan. The letter further urged the German government to expand and speed up support programmes for at-risk Afghans, particularly women, queer people and former military personnel, and to refrain from any agreement on the deportation of Afghan asylum seekers.
