The fact that the Taliban are continuing their program to disenfranchise women at such a rapid pace shows that the hardliners now want to clarify the question of power within the organization.
Almost a year and a half after leaving the West, they want to finally return to the conditions that prevailed in their first "emirate" at the end of the 1990s: to a theocratic patriarchy that, in its radicalism, goes far beyond what is seen in other strictly religious countries of the world is common in the Islamic world.
Even for strict Qatar, which has always acted as a mediator in Afghanistan, the ban on women working in Western non-governmental organizations goes too far.
Difficult access to women and children
The reactions of the affected organizations are understandable, because with these restrictions it will be difficult for them to access women and children who particularly need their help.
But by stopping their work, they are also playing into the hands of those in power.
The humanitarian aid is part of a last-ditch effort to salvage a little of the country's decades-old international construction.
This too must be borne in mind when Development Aid Minister Svenja Schulze is now calling for German support for Afghanistan to be suspended.
However, things in Afghanistan can hardly be influenced from outside.
Foreign countries have given up their most effective lever with the military retreat.
Only the Afghans themselves could stop their society from relapsing into pre-modern traditions, even if many Western politicians find it difficult to accept that.
Most Afghans did not want to fight the Taliban in 2021;
those who sought a Western life fled.
That hope now rests on "pragmatists" in leadership, who are on Western terrorist lists, shows the extent of the failure of the international community in this troubled country.