Women’s rights: Afghanistan can’t be compared to West

KABUL (Pajhwok): Taliban’s Qatar office spokesman Sohail Shaheen has said comparisons between Afghanistan and Western countries are not appropriate when discussing women’s rights and other issues.

“We are a different society, an Islamic society, so we can’t be matched to a European society,” he argued during an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital

“Secondly, we are building everything from scratch. Now, one year ago was completed everything in our taking power, and you have in the US centuries — all older governments — so you’ll have everything better, so we can’t be matched,” Shaheen said. “We need time to build everything, to put in line with our Islamic laws, the norms of that society, and we hope with the passage of time to solve all issues.”

Shaheen claimed the Taliban had worked to integrate women into the government and roles of power and had not restricted access to education at all.

He also claimed that the group had placed women in positions at the ministries of education, higher education, public health and interior, among others.

Indeed, Shaheen admitted in a terse exchange with Piers Morgan earlier this year that his own daughters attend school as they “observe hijab.”

“We never said we were against the education [of women],” Shaheen told Fox News Digital. “It is a universal right for all. Secondly, the picture is not as it is portrayed by our opponents.”

“Right now, there are 450,000 students of private and public universities, all for Afghanistan, and millions of girls studying in primary schools and also in secondary schools,” he added, claiming that “it is not like it is being presented by some media.”

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