The UN’s deputy secretary general, Amina Mohammed, is visiting Kabul to meet with Taliban leaders in the hope of convicing them to reverse their decisions on restricting women and girls’ rights.
Accompanied by the head of UN Women, Sima Bahous, Amina Mohammed and her delegation visited regional countries and held talks with country officials as well as the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC).
On 22 December last year, the Taliban banned women from universities, which two days later was followed by another order banning women from working as aid workers. The latter ban forced international aid agencies suspend their operations in Afghanistan, exacerbating the country’s already dire humanitarian crisis.
Some agencies, including the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Care International, have partially resumed their operations in health care services.
The Taliban leaders have not yet relented to international pressures to reverse their decisions. It is hoped, that a delegation led by UN’s two most senior women of Muslim backgrounds would convince the group change course.
