The U.S. Delegation Expresses Deep Concerns At Doha Women’s Rights Meeting
The U.S. delegation met the Afghan Taliban representative in a closed-door meeting at Doha. The news of the meeting came from the U.S. State Department on Monday, 31st July 2023. The delegation condemned the Taliban for how human rights are being denied, and things are becoming worse for women and girls in Afghanistan.
While expressing “deep concern” about the situation, the delegation also harped on the importance and need for assistance from UN bodies and other aid organizations. Further, the delegation mentioned that it was essential to support the organizations and bodies that have been offering help continuously. The delegation also found the situation to be a “humanitarian crisis.”
In recent months, this meeting has been one of the high-profile ones considering the U.S. team was headed by Special Representative Thomas West and Amir Khan Muttaqi, the foreign minister of Afghanistan.
However, the statement coming from the U.S. State Department did not bear the names of the Afghan representatives attending this meeting. The statement mentioned them as “seniors” and “technocratic professionals.”
Women’s rights have always played an important role in deciding the aid and support coming from the U.S. to Afghanistan since the Taliban assumed power in August 2021.
As per the dictum of the Taliban government, women cannot attend high schools and universities and are not allowed in gyms, funfairs, and parks. Moreover, they have to cover themselves while going out in public.
Rina Amiri, the U.S. Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights and one of the attendees of the meeting, took to social media platform X and wrote, “We called for the removal of restrictions on women & girls, including access to education & work; release of detainees; & end to corporal punishment, & crackdowns on media & freedom of expression.”
At the same time, the statement coming from the Afghan government mentioned that Kabul “emphasised once again that to build trust, it is important to remove blacklists and release the bank reserves so Afghans can develop their economy without foreign aid.”
And the statement from the U.S. State Department expressed that it is ready to have a “technical dialogue” that will address the issues of economic stabilization in Afghanistan, and that conversation is to happen anytime soon.
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