Rubio’s office told NR they have received reports that American women are not being allowed through checkpoints without a male guardian.
On Wednesday, Florida senator Marco Rubio pushed back on the State Department’s assertion that Americans have been able to make their way through Taliban checkpoints on their way to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, writing “this is a lie.”
More alarming still was his accusation that the Taliban “isn’t allowing American women through their checkpoints without a male guardian & are blocking non-citizen family members of U.S. citizens.”
A spokeswoman for Senator Rubio has confirmed these details, telling National Review that “the office of U.S. Senator Rubio, as well as other Senate offices, have heard alarming anecdotes of women — including from U.S. citizens — who are being prevented from passing through Taliban checkpoints without a male guardian.”
The intimation that Rubio is not the only senator aware of the issues at Taliban checkpoints raises questions about the transparency of the White House, which has maintained that Americans are being allowed through checkpoints save for rare exceptions.
It’s also particularly noteworthy in light of developments on the ground. On Thursday, a terror attack outside of the airport carried out by ISIS-K — the Afghan and Pakistani branch of the Islamic State — killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians. That attack has hastened the U.S.’s effort to fully evacuate the country while simultaneously making that mission more difficult.
Also Thursday, CENTCOM Commander Kenneth McKenzie revealed that the U.S. had been sharing intelligence with the Taliban because the military was convinced that it shared a “common purpose” of evacuating all Americans by August 31.
Meanwhile, CNN’s Jake Tapper reported on Friday afternoon that U.S. civilians more generally were being turned away by the Taliban.
Two private citizens involved in evacuation efforts tell me Talibs at a checkpoint in Afghanistan are now turning away US passport holders and Lawful Permanent Residents of US
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) August 27, 2021
The Taliban’s medieval views on the role and rights of women have long been the subject of international scorn. During their last stint in power between 1996 and 2001, the terror group forced women to don burqas in public, banned girls over the age of eight from attending school, denied life-saving medical care, and either beaten or stoned for minor infractions such as being “caught” in the presence of an unrelated man in the streets.
Reports of Taliban fighters raping women and young girls have become commonplace over the last several months as the group has clawed its way back into power.