Deputy UN representative personally calls on Taliban to lift ban on women

MADRID, 8 Ene. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The deputy representative of the United Nations for Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, has held a meeting with the acting Taliban minister for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, Mohamed Khalid Hanafi, whom he has asked to lift the veto against the education of women and their work for NGOs.

The Taliban have been the target of international criticism for their decision to prevent access to secondary and university education for women in the country, and to prohibit humanitarian aid workers from working.

This latest decision has paralyzed the activities of numerous NGOs that needed their employees to interact with the country's women, given the strict segregation policy imposed by the fundamentalist movement since the return to power.

According to a statement from the UN Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, Potzel informed the Taliban minister that the latest bans are an "act of discrimination against women" that are preventing Afghans from receiving essential help to survive.

In the same way, Potzel has recalled the impact that these vetoes are having on the Afghan economy, for which he has asked the minister to consider "its urgent lifting," the statement concludes.

Potzel recently held another meeting with the Taliban's Minister of Higher Education, Mohamed Nadim, considered one of the most extremist elements of the fundamentalist movement, to whom he also requested the urgent lifting of the prohibitions that, according to UNAMA, could open a " new era of crisis in the country".