NEW YORK: The UN’s deputy secretary-general called on Muslim nations Wednesday to remind Afghanistan’s de facto authorities, the Taliban, that women have rights in Islam.
Amina Mohammed traveled to a few countries including Turkey, Indonesia and some of the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, before her delegation visited Afghanistan to gain insights from an engagement with the Taliban.
”There’s a proposal on the table now that the UN together with the OIC — the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation — would co-convene with a number of countries an international conference within March on women in the Muslim world, and this would bring in the issues of Afghanistan, but also the region,” she told reporters at UN headquarters after completing a four-day trip to Afghanistan.
”When Malala (Yousafzai) was shot, she was shot in Pakistan. So there is a regional problem. There is a region that needs to also come to the front with pushing for the rights of women in Islam.”
She emphasized that it is very important for Muslim countries to come together and remind the Taliban that women have rights in Islam.
”A lot of what we have to deal with is how we travel the Taliban from the 13th century to the 21st, and that’s a journey,” she said.
The Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan on August 15, 2021 followed by the disruption of international financial assistance has left the worn-torn country in economic, humanitarian and human rights crises.
The Taliban regime has recently moved to close universities to female students across the country until further notice and has barred girls from attending secondary school, restricted women and girls’ freedom of movement, excluded women from most areas of the workforce and banned women from using parks, gyms and public bath houses.
Women and girls have been deprived of their rights, including the right to education, and disappeared from public life under the Taliban.
Thousands of women have since lost their jobs or were forced to resign from government institutions and the private sector.
Girls have also been prevented from attending middle and high schools.
Many women have demanded that their rights be reinstated by taking to the streets, protesting and organizing campaigns.
