Doha Forum: Concerns raised over rights of Afghan women to work, education

The Doha Forum hosted a meeting on Sunday, December 10, 2023, on the rights of women in Afghanistan under the theme: "Women of Afghanistan; The Source of Stability".

Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on human rights said at the meeting that he believes Afghan women have been "betrayed" by powerful countries, claiming that there is no consensus among the Taliban leaders about women's right to education as only some of them oppose the ban.

"The Taliban are not of the same opinion and not united regarding the education of girls and women. I think that the Taliban alliance is one of their strengths because they consider integrity to be very basic and important; but in the issue of education, I don't think they have this integrity. We have seen this difference in some statements," he said at the meeting.

Rina Amiri, the US special representative for Afghanistan's human rights and women's affairs, said at the Doha Forum meeting that banning the education of girls and women is against Islamic values and Afghan culture, and the Taliban should revoke this ban.

The Taliban claims to have changed compared to the first period of their rule in the second half of the 90s and expressed respect for the values of human rights and women's rights; but when they came to power in August 2021, they did not fulfil their commitments.

On February 29, 2020, the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha with the then-US government, and based on this agreement, Washington ended two decades of military presence in Afghanistan and the Taliban were able to overthrow the then-Afghan government.

With the Taliban coming to power, millions of Afghan girls and women have been denied the right to work and education, and girls are only allowed to study up to the sixth grade of primary school.

Afghan women believe that the international community has not provided the necessary support for their rights and as a result, the Taliban have been able to isolate them in society.

The Taliban seeks to fully implement Islamic Sharia law in society, and the ban on women's education and work, according to them, is based on "Sharia" principles and orders. The Taliban regime is managed and led by hard-line clerics. 

Some officials of this group have called for the reopening of schools and universities for women, but these officials are not in the decision-making circle of the Taliban leadership.