US Afghanistan peace women
12 Temmuz 2019 - 00:49
Afghan women note Taliban shift after Doha talks
Washington, July 11, 2019 (AFP) - An Afghan campaigner who took part in
breakthrough talks with the Taliban said Thursday that she saw subtle
improvements in the attitude towards women of the insurgents, who severely
curtailed their rights while in power.
In a meeting earlier this week in Qatar, the Islamist militants sat down
with Afghan representatives and issued a joint statement that called for
assuring women's rights "within the Islamic framework of Islamic values."
The conference, co-organized by Germany, came as the United States
negotiates with the Taliban to pull troops from Afghanistan -- with women's
rights not explicitly on the agenda.
Asila Wardak, a women's rights campaigner who works for the Afghan foreign
ministry, said she was surprised at the positive atmosphere in Doha as women
mingled directly with the Taliban over dinner and tea breaks.
"It was interesting to me as an Afghan woman as they didn't shake hands but
they warmly welcomed us," she told a symposium at Georgetown University on the
peace process, speaking by video from Kabul.
Two Taliban delegates even showed flashes of humor, telling the Afghan
women that they heard they would be coming and saying, "'Please don't give us
a hard time,'" she said.
"Maybe I'm wrong but their attitude has totally changed towards women,
towards government employees," she said.
"But I do not say that their behavior (changed) or, ideologically or
strategically, they didn't change anything," she said, pointing to a massive
blast in eastern Afghanistan that killed 12 and injured dozens of children
just as the Qatar talks were opening.
Ghizaal Haress, a constitutional scholar at the American University of
Afghanistan, said it remained unclear what the Taliban were saying by signing
the declaration in Doha.
"The term 'Islamic regime' is very vague, it's very broad and there is a
fear of what it will mean under the interpretation of the Taliban," she said.
"Do we mean an Islamic regime like the one in Malaysia or Indonesia? Do we
mean an Islamic regime like Saudi Arabia or Iran? Or do we mean one like
Pakistan?" she said, referring to governments with varying degrees of openness
toward women.
The Taliban were notorious for their harsh treatment of women during their
five-year rule of Afghanistan, which ended with the US-led invasion after the
September 11, 2001 attacks.
The insurgents forced women to cover themselves completely under burqas,
banned them from working and restricted most education for girls.
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