WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reiterated that any relationship with Afghan Taliban rulers is contingent on improving the treatment of girls and women two years after the Taliban toppled the US-sponsored government in Afghanistan, AFP reported on Tuesday.
He expressed these remarks during a press briefing in Washington. Blinken said, “We have been very clear with Afghan Taliban, and dozens of nations around the world have been very clear, that the path to any normal relations between Afghan Taliban and other nations will be blocked unless and until the rights of girls and women, among other things, are actually supported”.
Blinken Presses Afghan Taliban on Women’s Rights
He further said, “We continue to work to hold Afghan Taliban accountable for the many promises that it’s made and not fulfilled, especially when it comes to the rights of girls and women”.
Afghan Taliban stormed back to Kabul after US President Joe Biden withdrew US forces, ending Washington’s longest war.
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Blinken defended the pullout but also acknowledged that the decision to pull out troops from Afghanistan was tough. He added, “The decision to withdraw from Afghanistan was an incredibly difficult one, but also the right one”. The US top diplomat said, “We ended America’s longest war. For the first time in 20 years, we don’t have another generation of young Americans going to fight and die in Afghanistan,”.
Since assuming power, Afghan Taliban rulers have curtailed women and girls’ fundamental rights, depriving them of education, work, movement, and the ability to assemble.
