It looks like a last-ditch effort to sway the Taliban regime’s extremely harsh and repressive policies. The highest United Nations delegation ever sent to Afghanistan since Afghan Islamists took power on August 15, 2021, on Tuesday, January 17, embarked on a multi-day visit, which included meetings with the caciques of Taliban power in Kabul was interrupted. Members of this UN mission may also travel to Kandahar in the south in hopes of meeting the supreme leader of the Taliban movement, Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada.
UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, a former Nigerian minister and Muslim, arrives in Kabul a day late because cold and snow are crippling part of the country, and is leading a delegation seeking to express the international community’s outrage at the recent government announcements against the rights of women and girls. She will be accompanied by Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, the United Nations agency for promoting gender equality and women’s rights, and Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs Khaled Khiari.
Women and girls excluded from public space
Before landing in Kabul, these senior UN officials made stops in Europe, the Middle East and Asia to enlist the support of pillars of the international community before meeting Taliban leaders. They exchanged views with the Organization for Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Development Bank, Afghan women’s groups in Ankara and Islamabad, and a group of ambassadors and special envoys to Afghanistan based in Doha. At the end of these consultations, the principle of an international conference on women and girls in the Muslim world was adopted and planned for the month of March.
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This diplomatic offensive follows a series of announcements by the Taliban regime aimed at excluding women and girls from public spaces, including schools, parks and gymnasiums. On December 24, 2022, national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) were again targeted with a decree banning them from employing women. Suddenly, a key force in humanitarian aid disappeared just as the Afghan people were facing hunger and a severe economic crisis. In mid-January, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the creation of “gender-based apartheid” in this policy.
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