Monitoring Desk
UNITED NATIONS: A day after Pakistan’s United Nations Ambassador Munir Akram drew flak from Pakhtuns and human rights activists in both Pakistan and Afghanistan for equating the Taliban restrictions on women and girls with the Pakhtun culture, he clarified on Thursday he was referring to the “peculiar perspective” of the small minority when he spoke about the practice of keeping Pakhtun women and girls at home.
Akram, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, made the controversial remarks on Wednesday during briefing at the United Nations in New York.
He said at the United Nations briefing that the restrictions on the women that have been put by the Afghanistan interim government flow not so much from the religious perspective as from the peculiar cultural perspective of the Pashtun culture, which requires women and girls to be kept at home. And this is the peculiar, distinctive cultural reality of Afghanistan has not changed for hundreds of years.
Ambassador drew flak
Ex-senator Afrasiab Khattak called these remarks an insult to Pakhtun culture and asked Ambassador Akram “if Pakistan represents the Taliban now”.
Ambassador Akram said that he “regrets if his remarks misunderstood and hurt anyone’s feelings. There was no disrespect meant to the Pashtun culture, which is progressive and deserves full respect across the world”.
He said that he was referring to the “peculiar perspective of the small minority, which has resulted in the restrictions on women and girls.
In Pakistan, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson said that Islamabad had sought details of the ambassador’s Akram statement and a context in which it might have been made.
“Pakistan is a country accords equal status to women. It respects its commitments under international agreements and conventions,” the spokesperson said. “We believe Islam grants equal access to women’s education and rights, and … we have said that the enterprising and innovative Afghan women should not be deprived of their own rights to progress and to follow their dreams.”
