We are writing to President Biden about the severe economic crisis in Afghanistan, and measures that his administration should take to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people. One is to unfreeze the Afghan central bank funds being held in the U.S. and the other is to fill the $2 billion gap in the UN humanitarian aid appeal.
To President Biden:
We are writing to you about the severe economic crisis in Afghanistan, and measures that your administration should take to alleviate the suffering of the Afghan people. One is to unfreeze the Afghan central bank funds being held in the U.S. and the other is to fill the $2 billion gap in the UN humanitarian aid appeal.
We disagree with your decision to split the $7 billion in Afghan central bank assets, with half held for possible compensation in a court case by 9/11 families and the other half to be returned to Afghanistan in some undetermined form at some undermined time. It is clear that ALL of Afghanistan’s central bank funds should be returned to Afghanistan’s Central Bank immediately.
The freezing of Afghan central bank funds has contributed to the Afghan economy’s plunge into freefall. Afghans have not been able to withdraw their savings, salaries have not been paid, and businesses are going bankrupt. With millions of Afghans unemployed and hungry, these funds are critical to get the economy moving again.
Your decision has been denounced by the Board of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, has infuriated Afghans both inside and outside the country, and has been criticized by human rights groups, members of the U.S. Congress, think tanks, legal organizations and even 9/11 families.
If your concern is that the Taliban might misuse the money, banking professionals have proposed releasing the money in monthly tranches. Monitors would check exactly where that money goes and what is done with it. The moment anything seems improper, a freeze could instantly be reinstituted.
In addition to reviving the Afghan economy, there is a need to address the immediate humanitarian crisis. The UN has put out an urgent appeal for $4.4 billion and an international pledging conference on March 31 fell short by $2 billion. The United States is indeed the largest donor, pledging a total of just over $500 million. But you, Mr. President, told the American public that the U.S. had been spending $300 million a day in Afghanistan for 20 years of war and occupation. Surely it is not too much to ask that the U.S. spend less than the equivalent of one week, $2 billion, to fill the gap in the UN appeal.
Letting Afghanistan slide into total economic ruin will have devastating consequences. Children will die. More and more Afghans will flee the country, furthering the brain drain and fueling the refugee crisis. And terrorist groups will find fertile ground for the recruitment of young, disenfranchised men.
The Afghan people deserve better after four decades of war. That is why we call on you to return the $7 billion to Afghanistan’s Central Bank and to provide the humanitarian funds needed to avert famine.
Sincerely,
On February 11, President Biden issued an Executive Order regarding the $7 billion of Afghan funds invested in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. Biden called for the money to be divided in two, with half going to compensate 9/11 families who had been suing the Taliban for sheltering Al Qaeda and the other half going to humanitarian aid. But the Afghan people are not responsible for 9/11 and more than humanitarian aid, they need their money to be returned to their Central Bank to shore up their collapsing economy. Moreover, these funds are not Biden’s to distribute. They belong to the Afghan people.
To President Biden:
We are writing to express our outrage over your February 11 Executive Order regarding the $7 billion of Afghan funds invested in the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. We believe that your decision to divide the funds in two, with half going to compensate 9/11 families and the other half going to humanitarian aid, is unjust and will cause grave harm to the Afghan people.
Your decision has been denounced by the Board of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, which is the same board that existed before the Taliban takeover in August. It has also infuriated Afghans both inside and outside the country, and has been criticized by human rights groups, members of the U.S. Congress, think tanks, and legal organizations.
It rests on the assumption that this money belongs to the Taliban, but it does not. It belongs to the Afghan people. Your decision also misconstrues the purpose of a national reserve. It is not a slush fund that you can hand out to NGOs for humanitarian aid or use to settle court cases. It’s the backbone of a country’s fiscal stability.
Ever since you froze Afghan funds when the Taliban came to power in August, the economy has plunged into freefall. Afghans have not been able to withdraw their savings, salaries have not been paid, businesses have gone bankrupt, and trade has become almost impossible. And all of this is happening just as an especially harsh winter and an extended drought has led to food and fuel shortages and soaring prices.
With millions of Afghans unemployed and going hungry, these funds are critical to get the economy moving again.
Regarding the $3.5 billion you have set aside to satisfy a lawsuit brought by a group of 9/11 families, no Afghans participated in the 9/11 attack. And 20 years on, the majority of Afghans were not even born at the time of the 2001 attack.
The other $3.5 billion that you say will be allocated for humanitarian aid is problematic as well. Humanitarian aid is already being channeled through the United Nations and a wide variety of NGOs. Aid alone will not stabilize the economy; in the long run, it will make Afghanistan permanently dependent on charity. Instead, if their own assets were returned, they could fund an organic post-war recovery in which merchants can once more trade, small and large businesses can reopen, homes and shops and businesses can be rebuilt, and farms can be readied for the next planting season.
If your concern is that the Taliban might misuse the money, banking professionals have proposed releasing the money in monthly tranches. Monitors would check exactly where that money goes and what is done with it. The moment anything seems improper, a freeze could instantly be reinstituted.
The alternative, which is letting Afghanistan slide into total economic and social ruin, will have devastating consequences. Terrorist groups typically recruit young men who have no other means of livelihood. If they can’t earn wages, young Afghans will be vulnerable to recruitment by ISIS, or they will join the one million who have already crossed the border into Pakistan, Uzbekistan and Iran and who will eventually try to get into Europe as refugees.
In the name of benefiting the 9/11 families, your decision will be seeding the ground for the next 9/11.
We call on you to reverse this harmful decision and return the $7 billion to Afghanistan’s Central Bank.
Sincerely,
Afghan women have put out an urgent call regarding the non-payment of salaries to Afghan women teachers and healthcare workers. Add your name to the petition calling on the Biden Administration, the World Bank, and key members of Congress to unfreeze the Afghan funds to pay the salaries of Afghan teachers and healthcare workers.
Dear President Biden, the World Bank, and key members of Congress (see below for the specific members of Congress),
According to women in Afghanistan, the Taliban is allowing girls to attend primary school (grades 1-6). They have still not opened grades 7-12 to girls but have pledged to do so and we must hold them to that. However, there is a major hurdle: the non-payment of salaries to teachers. There are currently more than 120,000 female teachers in public schools across the country, and about half of them are the sole source of income for their families. It is very difficult, even impossible, to ask these teachers to continue teaching without pay.
Please release the Afghan funds to pay the salaries of Afghan teachers.
The same crisis is facing Afghan women healthcare workers. There are over 13,000 female healthcare workers in Afghanistan, including doctors, midwives, nurses, vaccinators, and other female staff. Most of them were being paid through the World Bank via the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), but since June, the funding has stopped. Meanwhile, the health system is on the brink of collapse. There has been a surge in cases of measles and diarrhea; a resurgence of polio is a major risk; almost half the children are malnourished; nearly 1 in 4 COVID hospitals have shuttered and 2 million doses of COVID19 vaccines remain unused for lack of personnel to administer them.
Please unfreeze Afghan funds to pay Afghan women healthcare workers and teachers. This money could come from the World Bank Afghan Trust Fund or the $9.4 billion of Afghan funds frozen in U.S. banks.
Sincerely,
Initial signers:
| Adela Azizi | Women’s scholar, Herat, Afghanistan |
| Alice Slater | World Beyond War, board member |
| Alice Walker | Author |
| Andrea Miller | Executive Director, Center for Common Ground |
| Anisa | Head master, Karim high school, Pangsher, Afghanistan |
| Ann Wright | Retired US Army colonel and State Department official |
| Beth Miller | Senior Government Affairs Manager, Jewish Voice for Peace Action |
| Charles F. Pritz, Esq | President, Human Rights Advocates International (HRAI) |
| Cheryl Benard | President, Metis Analytics; former Senior Analyst, Rand Corp. |
| Estee Chandler | Host, Middle East in Focus |
| Halima Nasiri | Supreme court judge, Kabul |
| Hanieh Jodat Barnes | President, Muslim Delegates and Allies |
| Jamila Afghani | President, Women’s Intl League for Peace and Freedom, Afghan branch |
| Jamila Safi | President, Female Teachers Association, Afghanistan |
| Jodie Evans | CODEPINK Co-Founder |
| July Kawamoto | Author, psychotherapist |
| Khatma Kakar | Youth women activist, Nangrhar |
| Latifa Hashmi | Principal, Kabul Girls High School |
| Lona Kargar | Women rights activist, Kandahar |
| Marjorie Cohn | Thomas Jefferson School of Law |
| Martha Leslie Allen | Director, Women’s Institute for Freedom of the Press |
| Martha L Schmidt, J.D. | Co-chair, Human Rights Framework Project, National Lawyers Guild |
| Medea Benjamin | Author and CODEPINK Co-Founder |
| Nasreen Barakzai | Principal, Zarghona girls high school, Kandahar |
| Peggy Gish | Christian Peacemakers |
| Phyllis Bennis | Author/analyst, Institute for Policy Studies |
| Qamar Niazi | Head of WAO organization |
| Rev. Dr. Chloe Beyer | Board member, Afghans4Tomorrow |
| Roya Hamid | Teacher, Rabia high school in Kabul |
| Ruth W. Messinger | Social Justice Consultant |
| Shekiba Amer | Teacher, Malali high school in Kabul |
| Sister Carol Boshert | Gospel Justice Group |
| Sister Carol Gilbert | Dominican Sisters |
| Sunita Viswanath | Hindus for Human Rights |
| Susan Scott | Human right attorney |
| Susan Smith | Muslim Peace Fellowship |
| Toorpakai Momand | former Director General of Female Education, Afghanistan |
| Wahid Omar | Board member, Afghans4Tomorrow |
| Zakia Mahmoodi | Shia Women Ulema, Afghanistan |
| Zarghoona Baloch | Deputy of Baloch Association, Kandahar |