In response to the U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva, who suggested it was unrealistic to expect the Taliban to immediately observe human rights after emerging from years of fighting in the mountains, Shaharzad Akbar, the former chairperson of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC), retorted that the mountains “don’t hate women.”
Otunbayeva had remarked in a press conference that the Taliban came from battles in the mountains, and it would not be easy for them to quickly accept women’s rights.
Akbar criticized this approach, pointing out that girls in Afghanistan have already been deprived of education for over 1,000 days. “SRSG is insulting the mountains.
Mountains don’t hate women, confine them to their homes, or deprive girls of education,” Akbar said. “You want to give the Taliban more time? At whose expense? It is already too late for the girls who have missed over 1,000 days of school.”
The Taliban’s invitation to the Doha meeting has sparked strong criticism from human rights defenders and watchdogs, who view it as a concession to the Taliban by the international community.
