Norway slams Afghan Taliban order demanding ladies cover up
COPENHAGEN (DENMARK): Norway has slammed the most recent Afghan Taliban order requiring females conceal head to toe in public and warned that Afghanistan’s new rulers are “steering the nation towards a humanitarian, financial and human rights disaster”.
The Taliban decree, revealed on Saturday, bought all Afghan women to use all-covering clothing in public, the standard burqa, and threatened to punish their male relatives in cases of noncompliance. It evoked similar restrictions on females and other hardline procedures imposed by the Taliban throughout their previous, 1996-2001 guideline of Afghanistan.
Earlier this year, the Taliban decided against reopening schools to ladies above grade six, breaking an earlier pledge and choosing to appease their hardline base. That decision has actually drawn global condemnation and disrupted efforts by the Taliban, who took power in Afghanistan last August, to win acknowledgment from prospective international donors at a time when the country is stuck in an aggravating humanitarian crisis.
“I am outraged by the statement that cautions that females in Afghanistan should cover their faces in public, can not drive a cars and truck and only leave house when necessary,” a declaration from Henrik Thune, Norway’s deputy foreign minister, stated Sunday.
Thune stated the edict is “entirely undesirable” and worried that although the Taliban are in power, “they are still a separated and non-representative government”.
“The Taliban’s policies continue to oppress females and girls, rather of addressing the recession and the requirement for an inclusive government,” he said.
Norway hosted 3 days of talks in January amongst the Taliban, Western diplomats and other delegates at closed-door meetings in the snow-capped mountains above the Norwegian capital of Oslo.
The talks – the first in Europe given that the Taliban takeover – concentrated on humanitarian aid to Afghanistan and human rights. The Taliban-appointed foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, said the discussions “went extremely well.” The talks also consisted of conversations in between the Taliban and members of Afghan civil society.
Thune stated it was needed to pursue dialogue, “even if the Taliban have worths that are far from ours” and added that without dialogue, “we also have no opportunity to influence those in power.”
He prompted the Taliban to “once again to keep their guarantees to Afghan females and girls”.
“Afghanistan’s women and ladies are awaiting the right to a full life and can’t be left out from society,” he stated.
Released at Mon, 09 May 2022 09:11:29 +0000