Pashtana Durrani, founder of an organization that works to make education available to women and girls across Afghanistan while the country remains under Taliban rule, said the Islamic fundamentalist group has little financial education, especially when it comes to cryptocurrencies.
In an interview Wednesday with Pod Save the World’s political commentator Tommy Vietor, LEARN Afghanistan founder Pashtana Durrani said that the international community, particularly the United States, should consider lifting the sanctions imposed on Afghanistan and unfreezing funds controlled by foreign governments. According to Durrani, limiting foreign aid to Afghanistan through non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other entities gives the Taliban an advantage, rather than using the latest technology, including cryptocurrencies.
“When I say unfreeze assets, send them in cryptocurrency, the Taliban will never understand,” Durrani said. “Send them to a private bank, they will never be able to access them […] The Taliban do not have bank accounts. The Taliban were people who fought in rural and very mountainous regions. They didn’t have time to go to a bank, fill out the forms and have that. “
Following the almost immediate seizure of power by the Taliban in August, Afghanistan has faced a series of crises. In addition to the threat posed by having armed religious extremists at the helm of the government, millions of Afghans face food insecurity and economic hardship. Many residents are still unable to withdraw cash from banks as the international community tries to impose restrictions designed to harm the Taliban.
“The sanction is only hurting people who had savings in bank accounts. You are hurting the teachers, you are hurting the students, you are hurting all the people who really worked in the last two decades; it will never hurt the Taliban. “
Many non-profit organizations that help Afghan refugees relocate to foreign countries have requested cryptocurrency donations using Bitcoin (BTC) and other tokens, But Durrani has called for the use of digital assets as a force for good in the face of what she sees as ineffective sanctions. In the digital age, Good Samaritans have sometimes completely bypassed official sanctions imposed by the United States to donate directly to people affected by war, famine, or other disasters in countries like Iran and Yemen.
“Afghanistan can be included in those big lists [del Grupo de Acción Financiera] and all that”Durrani said. “It could be one of those countries where you start using cryptocurrencies, legitimizing them, whatever, but at the end of the day you’re hurting the wrong kind of people to punish the people who are in power.”
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