Taliban talks with UN continue despite alarm over exclusion of women

Taliban officials attended a rare United Nations-led conference of global envoys to Afghanistan on Sunday, the first such gathering agreed to by Taliban representatives after organizers said Afghan women would be excluded from the talks.

The two-day conference in Doha, Qatar, is the third of its kind. It is part of a United Nations-led effort known as the ‘Doha Process’, which launched in May 2023. It aims to develop a unified approach to international engagement in Afghanistan. Envoys from about 25 countries and regional organizations, including the European Union, the United States, Russia and China, are present.

Taliban officials were not invited to the first meeting and declined to attend the second meeting, held in February, after objecting to the participation of Afghan civil society groups in attendance.

The conference has suffered a sharp backlash in recent days after UN officials announced that Afghan women would not participate in talks with Taliban officials. Human rights groups and Afghan women’s groups have criticized the decision to exclude them as too harsh a concession by the UN to convince the Taliban to join the talks.

The decision to exclude women sets “a deeply damaging precedent” and risks “legitimising their gender-based institutional system of oppression”, said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General of Amnesty International. said in a statement referring to the Taliban’s policies towards women. “The international community must take a clear and united position: the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan are non-negotiable.”

Since taking power from the US-backed government in 2021, Taliban authorities have systematically rolled back women’s rights, effectively erasing women from public life. Women and girls are not allowed to pursue education beyond primary school, work outside education and healthcare, and cannot travel long distances without a male guardian.

Human rights observers have described the government’s policies as akin to “gender apartheid” and suggested that the systematic oppression of women and girls could amount to crimes against humanity.

UN officials defended their decision to exclude Afghan women from the talks this week, insisting that the issue of women’s rights would be raised in the talks with the Taliban. They also said they would meet with Afghan civil society representatives before and after the talks with Taliban officials.

“The issue of inclusive governance, women’s rights and human rights in general will be part of every session,” Rosemary DiCarlo, the UN political chief who is chairing the meeting, said at a news conference on Thursday.

Many Afghan women also called on Afghan activists invited to the side talks in Doha to boycott the talks in protest.

The meeting is an attempt by the international community to “normalize the Taliban,” said Rokhshana Rezai, an Afghan activist. posted on X. “I ask everyone who believes in freedom and humanity to boycott this meeting because this meeting is neither for the benefit of the Afghan people nor for the benefit of Afghan women.”

The controversy surrounding the conference underlines heated tensions within the West over how to deal with Afghanistan’s new government.

Some groups have tried to isolate the Taliban by using sticks, such as sanctions, instead of carrots to convince them to change their most controversial policies toward women. Others have tried to engage the new government, hoping that promoting more dialogue would bring policy changes to Afghanistan to make the government more acceptable to the West.

Officials seeking to engage the Taliban want to focus on crucial issues such as counterterrorism, given the presence of terrorist groups. including the Islamic State affiliate in the region, on Afghan soil. They also say that without greater dialogue, Afghanistan could become more closely aligned with Russia and China, both of which have been willing to ignore the Taliban’s human rights record in dealing with their government.

UN officials stressed last week that the conference with Taliban officials was not a step toward formally recognizing the group as the legitimate rulers of Afghanistan. To date, no country has done so.

Taliban chief spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, who leads the delegation, said at a news conference on Saturday that his government hopes to discuss economic issues and international sanctions on Afghanistan.

The Taliban authorities “recognize the issues surrounding women,” he said. “But these issues are Afghanistan’s issues,” he added, suggesting that the Afghan government did not believe the international community should be involved in determining its domestic policies regarding women’s rights.

Najim Rahim contributed reporting from San Francisco.