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Taliban declares "amnesty" and calls on women to join new government

17 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

The Taliban declared an "amnesty" and called on women to join its new government on Tuesday, as the militant group marked the first day of what it's hailing as the "Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan."

Why it matters: The remarks by Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban's cultural commission, mark "the first comments on governance from a federal level" since the Taliban returned to power, AP notes.

  • The Taliban was known for publicly executing women, normally on grounds of alleged adultery, in Kabul's main soccer stadium when it was last in power in Afghanistan in the 1990s. Usually, the women were either stoned or shot to death at close range.
  • Annie Pforzheimer, deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Kabul from 2017-18, told Axios' Dave Lawler that Afghan women and girls, who've had access to freedoms including education and employment for the past 20 years, would likely see restrictions reimposed on them by the Taliban.

What they're saying: "The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims," Samangani said, per AP.

  • "They should be in government structure according to Shariah law. The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join."

The bottom line, per Pforzheimer: There "should be absolutely no illusion" that the Taliban has changed.

Go deeper: Female mayor in Afghanistan says she is waiting for Taliban to come and kill her

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.