"UN sanctions hit people, no effect on Taliban", Mary MacMackin

The Frontier Post
July 15, 2000

PESHAWAR (ONLINE) The expelled US national Mary MacMackin has said that the situation in Afghanistan will further worsen if United Nations slammed further sanctions on the war-raved country. "It will be disaster because the UN sanctions have hit the people and had hardly any effect on the Taliban", she said in an interview with Online here on Friday. Mary arrived in Peshawar on Thursday following orders by Taliban to leave Afghanistan.

The 72 year old women who runs Physiotherapy And Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan (PARSA) in Kabul for Afghan widows, pointed out that the plight of the women in that country is not going to improve as long as the present rulers stayed there. She said though international agencies are working for the betterment of Afghan women, there zero support by the Taliban regimes in this connection.

Around 30,000 widows in Kabul depend on the earnings of the male members. The Taliban have a ban on the working-women, which are further adding to the miseries of widows.

Mary is of the view that more and more women in Afghanistan need to have skills for establishing a source of earning for them.

To a question regarding her detention and allegations against her, she said her organization is involved in working with women.

Therefore, she had to employ only the women. "I was surprised by the action and the accusations because I was not violating any law," she said.

"The Taliban do not understand cooperation or how to govern the country. They have no previous experience because they are simply Mullahs," she said while description the overall situation in Afghanistan. On top of this, the Taliban have no credit for education or wisdom and the only thing they tell to the people is to learn the Holy Quran, she said. There are no textbooks available in Kabul for school going children. The only books that are available are second hand ones developed by the Mujahideen groups a few years back.

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