Amina Mohammed, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that a UN delegation that met with senior Taliban officials in Afghanistan has made progress on women’s rights. However, she warned that much more needs to be done.
This week’s high-level meeting comes amid widespread criticism of the Taliban government for excluding women from NGOs and universities last month. Because schools are still closed, millions of high school girls have already been confined to their homes. Since they seized power in August 2021 after the West-backed government fell, the Taliban have broken their promises of women’s rights and media freedom.
“Some progress has been made. According to Mohammed, who led the delegation, “some exemptions have been made to the edicts that have covered the health sector,” he was referring to the fact that three NGOs resumed their work last week.
She went on to say, “I think that’s because the international community, and especially the partners who are funding this, were able to show the implications and the impact of the woman-to-woman services, especially childbirth.”
She said that wasn’t enough, adding that was just the beginning. We hope that through the reversals, we can eventually reach the point where those edicts are null and void and women and girls are back in school and, of course, the workplace.
The UN diplomat, who is 61 years old, stated that her delegation met with cabinet members, including the minister of refugees and returnees, deputy prime minister, and foreign minister.
The group also met Kandahar’s governor and the Shura, or leadership council, that makes many important decisions for the country.
I’ve always made it abundantly clear that I’m going there to promote Afghan women’s voices. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Mohammed stated, “We heard from young women who said, “We do not need your voice, what we need is you amplify ours.”
“I was very focused on communicating those messages,”
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‘Important to have a conversation’
Mohammed, the UN’s highest-ranking female official, stressed the importance of working with the Taliban while describing the current laws governing women’s education and employment as an “aberration” to Islamic teachings.
She continued, “It’s very important to enter there and attempt to have a conversation with them, and they did.”
“What we did see was an awareness of the significance of it for women’s and girls’ education rights.” All of them did not respond in that way. However, they stated that “it is a work in progress and they are going to come back to us with the new framing around which they would protect women who would have access to education and the workplace,” according to Mohammed, the first Muslim deputy secretary general of the United Nations.
The “unprecedented, systemic attacks on women’s and girls’ rights” that, according to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, “are creating gender-based apartheid” were condemned last week.
According to Abdul Qahar Balkhi, the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ spokesman, some NGOs were attempting to bring about what he referred to as “social change” in Afghanistan.
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However, he asserts that the Taliban permit organizations to function if they uphold the country’s values.
Balkhi told Al Jazeera on Saturday that NGOs that were dedicated to the “cardinal principle of NGO work,” such as impartiality and neutrality, were granted exemptions in certain areas, including health.
Before she went to Kabul, Mohammed, a former minister of environment in the Nigerian government, contacted the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which has 57 members, to express concern about restrictions on women.
In a statement, the OIC, a group of Muslim nations, stated that the events in Afghanistan are against Islam and the holy Quran.
In addition, Mohammed stated that the Taliban’s “need and want to be recognised” surprised her.
Since the Taliban came to power 17 months ago, just weeks before the US-led foreign forces were scheduled to leave after 20 years of war and occupation, no country in the world has recognized the government.
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The group has been asked to make the government more representative and to lift restrictions on women’s rights.
Mohammed, the UN envoy, responded, “I hope there is a day that we do recognize this government, provided it is based on the principles that they need to understand and uphold as part of the international family,” when asked if the organization would receive recognition from the United Nations.
“However, I do worry that what we are doing will result in women and girls being caught in the crossfire, and it is of the utmost importance that we do not do that. She continued, “We heard the stories of many Afghan women who are unable to feed their children as a result of this.”
“They are heartbreaking tales of women who are unsure of where their next meal will come from.”
28 million people were affected by the country’s humanitarian crises, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The country has been hit by a severe cold wave that has killed dozens of people.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA