On April 18, 2022, the Boston Globe editorial “The world must help the girls of Afghanistan” described how the Taliban is restricting education for girls and women and looked at the levers that the West can pull to try to change this course. The article notes that “the Taliban’s desire for recognition and respect from the world community gives the West an opportunity to send a unified message that no progress will be made on that front until this decision is reversed.”

Dyan Mazurana, who has worked on gender issues in Afghanistan for many years, underscored that point: “There can’t even be any notion of having a discussion about recognizing [the Taliban] as legitimate leaders until they start behaving like that, and a baseline is the rights of women and girls.” She went on to suggest that international community should try to identify and elevate those Taliban who do support full schooling for girls, by for example inviting them, rather than hardliners, to international fora.

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