Current restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes and violate their rights, the deputy chief said after visiting Kandahar
Published : 21 Jan 2023, 08:22 AM
UN DeputySecretary-General Amina Mohammed expressed alarm toTalibanofficials in Kandahar over violations ofwomen'srightsin Afghanistan, the United Nations said on Friday after she made a rarevisitto theTaliban's southernheartland.
Mohammed finished a four-dayvisitto Afghanistan on Friday, also meetingTalibanofficials in the capital Kabul after the administration banned most female aid workers and stopped women and girls from attending high school and university.
"My message was very clear: while we recognise the important exemptions made, these restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating theirrightsand depriving the communities of their services," Mohammed said in a statement.
In Kandahar - home to theTaliban's supreme spiritual leader who has the final say on major decisions - MohammedmetwithDeputyGovernor Maulvi Hayatullah Mubarak.
He told her that theTalibanadministration wanted a strong relationship with the world, the removal of sanctions on its leaders and to be able to send an ambassador to theUN, said the Kandahar information office.
TheUN General Assembly last month postponedforthe second timeadecision on whether theTalibanadministration can send an ambassador to New York. Dozens ofTalibanleaders are also subject toUN sanctions.
No government has formally recognised theTalibanadministrationsince it seizedpower in August 2021.
"Right now, Afghanistan is isolating itself, in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis and one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change," Mohammed said.
The head of theNorwegian Refugee Council, a major aid group that has suspended work in Afghanistan, has stresseditwas important for the international community to engage withTalibanleaders in Kandahar, saying many officials in Kabulsignaledthat the orders restrictingwomen'srightshad come from there.