During the “Women of Peace and Security” week, a meeting about the situation of Afghan women was held at the United Nations.
Participants in the meeting criticized the restrictions against women in Afghanistan and said that women are systematically excluded from society.
“For two years now, the de facto authorities denied women and girls rights including to education, work, movement, and assembly,” said Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women.
some former government officials who participated in the meeting emphasized the importance of women’s presence in meetings related to Afghanistan.
“Bring women to the table if there is negotiation or there is an engagement or whatever pls bring women to the table and do not talk on behalf of Afghan women they can talk themselves,” said Habiba Sarabi, former minister of women.
“Afghan women have faced many challenges and hardships over the past two years, but they have not been passive victims of their circumstances instead they have been active advocates demanding change encouragesly standing up for their rights and refusing to be silent,” said Adela Raz, former Afghan ambassador in Washington.
“This report and this mandate do not prefer specifically to gender prosecution or gender partied, whoever it does refer to building on the previous report which does refer specifically to that so I take it that to have been given such a mandate, it’s both … challenge and a great privilege and I look forward in the coming months to working …,” said the UN special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett.
The representatives of England, Norway, and America emphasized supporting Afghan women in the meeting.
“The UK continues to work with the international community to press the Taliban to reverse the decision on the commitment that they have made,” said a UN representative.
But referring to the presence of women in some parts of the society, the Islamic Emirate said that women’s rights are secured in the country.
“All their claims are not true. We must remember that there is a field of work for women. Our sisters are busy working both in the government and outside the government, especially in business, which has become more prosperous,” said Zabiullah Mujahid, spokesman for the Islamic Emirate.
Previously, twelve members of the United Nations Security Council have also criticized what they consider human rights violations, discrimination, and deprivation of women and girls in Afghanistan.
