Leaders from Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan assembled in Kabul last week to discuss economic cooperation through the trillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative and the $60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.

Some are worried that increased connections between China and the Taliban may lead Beijing to recognize the Taliban’s de facto government. Russia became the first country to recognize the Taliban in July. While Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, and China have sent ambassadors to Kabul, none have recognized the Taliban government.

Ambassador Manizha Bakhtari is the former Afghan government’s diplomatic envoy to Austria. Bakhtari told the Washington Examiner, “When major powers move to normalize relations with the Taliban … it legitimizes a regime that is systematically depriving half of its citizens of the most basic rights such as education, work, freedom of movement, and participation in public life.”

Bakhtari said normalization “not only strengthens the Taliban politically, but also deepens the sense of abandonment that Afghanistan women feel from the international community. It risks reinforcing gender apartheid by treating it as an........

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