Afghan women excluded from UN-Taliban meeting in Doha

The Taliban has praised the United Nations’ “spirit of cooperation” this week as the militant group attended a summit in Doha. “An atmosphere of trust has been created,” said Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. To note: Afghan women were excluded from the main Taliban-UN meeting, a move criticised by Nobel laureate Malala Yousufzai and Richard Bennett, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Afghanistan. The Taliban have demolished female participation in almost every aspect of public life in a system described as “gender apartheid” since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021. Mujahid reportedly said that the Taliban’s religious and cultural values “must be acknowledged” to facilitate bilateral relations with Afghanistan. The UN says the Doha meeting does not mean it recognises a Taliban government. Further reading: yesterday the Guardian reported it had seen video evidence of a female Afghan human rights activist being gang-raped and tortured in a Taliban jail.