• UN official expresses concern to Taliban leaders about breaches of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
• Amina Mohammed spoke with Deputy Governor Maulvi Hayatullah Mubarak in Kandahar.
• She also met with Taliban leaders in Kabul, where she condemned the government’s treatment of women.

Amina Mohammed, the UN’s deputy secretary-general, paid a rare visit to the Taliban’s southern stronghold of Kandahar on Friday and communicated her concern to Taliban leaders there about breaches of women’s rights in Afghanistan.

Mohammed just returned from a four-day trip to Afghanistan, where he also had meetings with Taliban leaders in Kabul, the country’s capital, after the government had barred the majority of female humanitarian workers and prohibited girls and women from enrolling in high school and universities.

“My message was very clear: while we recognize the important exemptions made, these restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services,” Mohammed said in a statement.

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Mohammed spoke with Deputy Governor Maulvi Hayatullah Mubarak in Kandahar, the city where the Taliban’s highest spiritual leader, who has the final word on critical matters, resides.

According to the Kandahar information office, he explained to her that the Taliban government desired robust connections with the outside world, the lifting of sanctions against its leaders, and the ability to send an ambassador to the UN.

Last month, the UN General Assembly postponed its decision on whether to allow the Taliban government to send an ambassador to New York for a second time. Additional Taliban leaders are sanctioned by the UN.

Since the Taliban government gained control in August 2021, no official recognition has been given to it by any authority.

“Right now, Afghanistan is isolating itself, in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis and one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change,” Mohammed said.

According to the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, a significant aid organization that has suspended operations in Afghanistan, it is crucial for the international community to communicate with the Taliban leaders in Kandahar because many Kabul officials gave off the impression that the directives limiting women’s rights originated from there.

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