 After their successful military campaign to take over Afghanistan, the Taliban have begun a PR campaign to win legitimacy. To that end, the group hosted an unprecedented press conference on Tuesday in Kabul. The conference was hosted by the Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid, who had never before shown his face to the media. The first task Mujahid had set himself was to reassure the international community. It is very understandable the international community is expressing worries about the security and about Afghanistan. But I reassure all internationals, the UN, all embassies, to all our neighbours that we will not be allowing the soil of Afghanistan to be used against anybody. We assure them we keep our promises and we keep the Islamic Emirates promises. It was of course allowing al-Qaeda to operate in their territory and plan the 9-11 attacks that would end the Taliban's last period of rule. So you can see why they might want to reassure other countries it's not going to happen again. As I say, it's probably too early to take their word for it. The Taliban didn't just limit themselves to suggesting only those outside the country had nothing to fear from their rule here. The spokesperson tried to reassure those Afghans remaining in the country who had worked for the Americans. I want to reassure all our countrymen, whoever has worked in the military, in translation, we have given amnesty to everybody. There is no revenge. All those young people who have talent, who have got education, we don't want them to leave. We want them to hear, to be here in Afghanistan, work for their own country. I reassure all of them, no one will go after them, no one will ask them why you worked with or why you translated for the Americans or you supported them. Now that was a really interesting statement I thought, especially because of the statement that the spokesman made that he doesn't want young people to leave. This reminded me of a conversation we had with Anatole Levin last Friday. He was saying one of the key determinants of what kind of regime the Taliban implement will be whether or not they decide that they need technocrats. Do they need educated middle-class people to help run the country and to help grow the economy? Now if we take this man at his word, potentially they do. Again, too early to say that's going to be a frequent refrain in this section, I'm afraid. Finally, the issue about which most is still unknown and about which there should be the most concern is how the Taliban will treat women. Last time they were in power, women were virtually erased from public life. There were horrific punishments for things like adultery. They've suggested this time will be different. This is what the spokesperson said on that topic. Our God, our Quran says that women is a very important part of our society. They can work, they can get education, they are needed in our society and they will be actively involved. If the international community is worried about these issues, we will tell them there will be no nothing against women in our ruling. Our people accept, our women are Muslims, they accept Islamic rules. If they continue to live according to Sharia, we will be happy, they will be happy. It goes without saying that is a very big if, if they live according to Sharia. To discuss how seriously we should take the Taliban's claims though, I spoke earlier to Abu Dhabi here, a university lecturer in Kabul. I started by asking him if we should believe what the Taliban said at Tuesday's press conference. Well, I think you have the luxury of not believing it. I think people in Afghanistan right now don't have any other option but to cling to the hope that all of this is true. The idea is that the Taliban have in the past shown a certain level of incongruence between what they've been saying and what they've been doing. They have had such statements before, however, ground realities in provinces have been different. The difference between then and now is that now their leadership is going to be in Afghanistan. So the same excuse of insubordination in such cases that they used to refer to is going to be there no more. Now, what happens is people who have a higher stake in this future are apprehensive that much of what the Taliban are saying are for international appeasement. And this is timed until the last soldier leaves, then the Taliban behavior would change. And all of that is based on assumptions as well. The reality is we have to wait for them to form a government and then see how much accommodation they have within them for conflicting views for newer ideas. How much does it matter how that government is formed? I understand negotiations are still going on at the moment. Will the big moment where we know whether they're for real be the one where they say who they are going to invite into their government and who they aren't going to invite into their government? I think that would be a good start with regards to really knowing how they plan on moving forward because they have had a past where they didn't have much international recognition. When they were here in the 90s, there was a time when they did approach the UN, they did approach the United States and they did try to get international recognition, but that didn't work for them. So hoping that in itself as a memory is deterrent enough for them to change behavior, modify their behavior this time around. So it starts with how inclusive the government is. And then from that way forward, we have to see how they form their specific commissions, what the education policies are going to be like, what general government policies are going to be like. And all of that is going to be very closely linked with the quality of life that people perceive for themselves as well under the Taliban. So there have been protests yesterday in Jalalabad or I think today against the Taliban and they tried to hoist the Afghan flag back up. And I'm hoping that this is not the start of things to come. And the Taliban really need to expedite their process of forming a government because the longer a political vacuum stays, the more people get anxious with regards to what the Taliban have in store. So yeah, it starts with the government and then we see the rest of the policies follow. One of the points that I thought was particularly interesting in that press conference was the spokesperson saying, we don't want young educated people to leave the country, we want them to stay here and help rebuild the country. Presumably you would fall into that category of people, an educated class in Afghanistan who they say they want you to stay. Do you believe them when they say that? And are you considering should I up sticks and leave or should I stay and try and help rebuild a new Afghanistan? When they say that, what do they mean? Do they mean they would prefer these people to stay or they block them from leaving because they both have very different ramifications. The Taliban for 20 years have been the enemy. So their image constructed in the heads of the post 90s generation is one of savage, violent people who cannot accommodate conflicting opinions. And that's not a world that a lot of these young people would want to live under. For my case specifically, I have certain safety nets. I have a certain background that helps enable me to raise the voice and shake the bush more than other people can. And I'm planning on using that and I'm planning on using my groups here and try to act as that devil's advocate. Try to act like someone who is going to not compromise on the vision of the world that we had. So when we're trying to reconcile the two worlds that the Taliban had and what the generation that grew up after them have, there have to be people that can give newer ideas because if it's just the Taliban making the decisions and every one of us leaves, there are going to be people here that will have to suffer due to those policies. So I guess Uncle Ben said it right. With great power comes great responsibility and those of us who can raise a voice have to raise a voice. We owe it to the people. What do you think the role is at this point for outside countries to try and pressure the Taliban to stick to their word? What leverage do they have and how should they best use it? They have all their leverage in the world. They have the relief of sanctions. They have foreign aid. They have international recognition. All these cards are in their hands. And these are things that the Taliban do care for. And we see that from how they weren't in a rush to move into the presidential palace and announce their government. The fact that they're still having their leadership come here and lead, meet political leaders within Kabul is a sign, is a good sign. It shows that they really do care about how the international community perceives them. We heard Justin Tradou say that they would not accept a Taliban run government. So yeah, the international community still holds a lot of cards and they can help in enabling the voices of the youth and women in Afghanistan to help create a society that is livable. If they do want to stop the brain drain, they need to create a world that is good enough for these people to stay because people decided to cling on to the tires of a plane and fall to their death but not live under the Taliban regime. Yeah, it's now or never. The international community has done a lot of bad to Afghanistan with a lot of mistakes, supporting corruption, the unresponsible withdrawal from Afghanistan, the shutting off of borders, the too little too late with regards to the immigration that they're offering Afghans now. After all of that, at least the international community can do is engage with the Taliban and help enable voices other than the Taliban to make sure that the newer world is one that is sustainable. MPs at the moment in Westminster are having a big debate about the withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban takeover. It seems to me really the consensus which is being put forward by our MPs is that essentially this was a good war that for those 20 years that Western troops were there, they were securing freedom. They were increasing security and that it was by leaving that they have abandoned Afghanistan. And I wanted to know what your thoughts are on that particular interpretation of what's happened over the past week and what's happened over the past 20 years. The situation for Afghanistan was an utter failure. Its failure can't just be summarized in the way it ended in the way that they left. It also can be seen in the way that it was conducted. Any war that protects for that long is already a lost war. The idea that the West came here with extreme cultural insensitivity. To recognize what these people were willing to accept what they weren't, alienated the local population, brought in diaspora to rule the country that really didn't understand the country much either, alienated the local leaders, the same local leaders who then stood up by the Taliban, even with regards to addressing the basic needs of the people. There's this policy of how you need the insurgents swim, right? So that means you have to address basic needs to make sure more and more insurgents don't end up picking up arms. And they managed to feel that because you go to rural Afghanistan, it's the same rural Afghanistan it was before the West came. It's the same rural Afghanistan after the West went. So you can go around and absolve yourself of responsibility and say, well, we did pay them money, but that's like throwing money at a fire, right? So what did you do to contain the fire? Why were you enabling corrupt politicians? Why did you not have a plan for the Afghan peace process? Why did the United States sign a peace deal and had no idea what the Afghan political settlement would look like? Why did the West not have a regional approach and try to reconcile the different visions for Afghanistan that the neighbors had? And the list goes on. Neither was the start of the war a smart approach, neither was the end of the war a smart approach. And who suffers at the end of the day the common Afghan? Because every time the West comes in here from its imperial colonial times, it destabilizes the society. It leaves fragile states. It goes back and then eventually the society in the world here haunts them. Then they come back again and then we restart over. When is this going to stop? And it only stops when sustainable and stable governments are formed here. And when the West rather than being run by their own national interests really care for the welfare of the Afghan society and the Afghan people.