Haidari: Taliban Rule Fuels Afghanistan’s Deepening Humanitarian Crisis

By Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, D.C., September 11, 2025 — In a recent interview with Afghanistan International, Ambassador Ashraf Haidari, President of Displaced International (DI), warned that Afghanistan’s humanitarian catastrophe will continue to worsen as long as the Taliban remain in power without legitimacy or accountability.

Haidari emphasized that the presence of the Taliban as an internationally sanctioned regime is at the root of the country’s humanitarian crisis. He described how insecurity, a collapsed and sanctioned economy, and repeated natural disasters — from earthquakes to climate shocks — have all been compounded by what he called the Taliban’s policy of gender apartheid.

As an example, Haidari highlighted the Taliban’s refusal to allow female doctors and aid workers to assist women injured in the devastating Kunar earthquake. “By excluding women from disaster response, they deliberately added to the pain of families already devastated by loss,” he said.

He also criticized the regime’s broader governance failures, citing their inability to mount an effective domestic response or to attract international assistance, including from Afghanistan’s neighbors. “They have neither the capacity nor the legitimacy to mobilize the urgent rescue and recovery aid the Afghan people desperately need,” Haidari noted.

Looking ahead, he cautioned that unless the Taliban respond tangibly to the demands of both the Afghan people and the international community — by forming an inclusive and accountable government consistent with Afghanistan’s international obligations — the crisis will only deepen. “Without real change, the humanitarian suffering of Afghans will not end but get worse,” he concluded.