The Taliban issued a statement to mark International Women's Day, claiming that Afghan women are safe and their rights are protected despite UN condemnation of ongoing restrictions on work and education.
Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in 2021, they have banned women and girls from receiving education beyond the sixth grade (aged 11–12), and have deprived them of most jobs and access to many public spaces.
Last August, the country's Ministry of Vice and Virtue unveiled laws banning women from speaking and showing their faces outside the home.
Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid posted the statement on his official X account, without specifically mentioning International Women's Day, which falls on March 8.
He stressed that the dignity, honour and legitimate rights of women are of paramount importance to the Islamic Emirate (the term used by the Taliban to describe their government).
He added that Afghan women live in safety both physically and psychologically.
“According to Islamic law, culture and traditions of Afghan society, the basic rights of Afghan women have been ensured,” Mr. Mujahid said.
“However, it is important to remember that Afghan women’s rights are discussed in an Islamic and Afghan context, which has clear differences from Western societies and their culture.”
On the same day, the UN again called on the Taliban to lift the bans.
Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, said: “The exclusion of women and girls from public life cannot be ignored.
“We remain committed to investing in their resilience and leadership as they play a key role in Afghanistan’s future.”
Alison Davidian, UN Women's Special Representative in Afghanistan, said the world cannot accept a future for Afghan women that is not accepted anywhere else.
“Our response to their destruction is a test of our commitment to women and girls around the world,” Ms. Davidian said. “We must support Afghan women as if our own lives depended on it — because they do.”
The Taliban remain isolated from the West and are not internationally recognized as the country's official government because of restrictions on women and girls.
The Afghan Journalists Support Organization reported that there are currently 893 women working in the media sector, down from the 2,756 who worked in 2021, according to Reporters Without Borders.
According to an Afghan aid organization, there is not a single woman in the media industry in nine provinces.
The decline in the participation of women journalists, caused by the Taliban's discriminatory policies, is evidence of a “coordinated effort” to push women out of the media landscape, the report says.
UNESCO held a high-level conference on women and girls in Afghanistan in Paris on Friday.
The event was attended by Hamida Aman, founder of women's radio station Radio Begum, Fawzia Khufi, a parliamentarian from the former Western government, and human rights experts including Richard Bennett, who is banned from entering Afghanistan.
In an apparent mockery of the event, the spokesman for the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, Saif ul-Islam Khyber, said that recent international conferences organised under the guise of protecting women's rights had exposed the hypocrisy of some organisations and funds of the European Union.
Sourse: breakingnews.ie
