Respect Afghans’ cultural, religious values, MoFA tells world

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) on Friday welcomed the UNSC decision to provide humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, but stressed that the international community must respect the religious and cultural values ​​of Afghans.

Earlier this week, the UNSC released a statement expressing “deep concern” regarding the dire humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan and recognized the need for “strengthened efforts to provide humanitarian assistance and other activities” that support basic human needs.

In this regard, it called for allowing “safe and unhindered” access for all humanitarian personnel, including women, and underlined the need to help address the economy, including through efforts to restore the banking and financial systems, and also enable the use of frozen assets of Afghanistan’s Central Bank.

However, the statement also strongly criticized the increasing erosion of the human rights and fundamental freedoms of women and girls in Afghanistan under the Taliban.

This, it added, was happening through restrictions limiting access to education, employment, freedom of movement, and women’s full, equal and meaningful participation in public life.

The UNSC emphasized that these restrictions contradicted the expectations of the international community and the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people.

The MoFA statement came a day after the newly appointed Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, told a press conference here that Afghanistan was at a crossroads, facing a plethora of human rights challenges.

He said many of the Taliban policies for absolute control were having a cumulative effect on a wide range of human rights and were creating a society ruled by fear. “The advancing erasure of women from public life is especially concerning.”

Measures such as the suspension of girls’ secondary education, severe barriers to employment, no opportunities to participate in political and public life, limits on freedom of movement, association, and expression, directives on maharam (male family member chaperone), enforcing a strict form of Hijab and strong advice to stay at home, fit the pattern of absolute gender segregation and are aimed at making women invisible in society, Bennett said.

The MoFA welcomed the decision by UN Security Council member states to revive Afghanistan’s banking and financial system and provide humanitarian assistance to Afghans.

The statement reiterated its call on the United States to release Afghanistan’s frozen assets unconditionally and without any economic restrictions.

The ministry also dismissed the concerns raised in the Security Council Declaration on the rights of Afghan women as unrealistic and ensured the full rights of women, children and minorities within the framework of accepted Afghan religious and cultural guidelines.

The statement added that since the people of Afghanistan were predominantly Muslim, the Afghan government considered the observance of Islamic hijab to be in line with the religious and cultural values ​​of the society and the aspirations of the majority of Afghan women.

“Nothing has been imposed in opposition to religious and cultural beliefs.”

The ministry that the Islamic Emirate respected the religious freedom of the people and believed in solving problems through dialogue, urging the world to understand the realities of Afghan society and respect religious and cultural values ​​of Afghans.

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