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The European Union said on Sunday it was “particularly concerned” by the deteriorating conditions of Afghan women and girls after Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban violently disrupted a women’s rally.
Taliban militants fired into the air on Saturday, beating protesters participating in a women’s “bread, work and freedom” march in Kabul. Some of the women were chased to a nearby store and shot with the butt of a gun.
The violence since the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan a year ago, on August 15, 2021, has highlighted the Taliban’s increasing restrictions, especially on women.
“The EU is particularly concerned about the fate of Afghan women and girls, whose freedoms, rights and access to basic services such as education are systematically denied,” the office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
“The EU reaffirms that Afghanistan must abide by the international treaties to which it is a party, including the maintenance and protection of economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, and allow all Afghans to be fully, equally and meaningfully represented and participated in the governance of the country.”
It also stressed that, according to UN Security Council resolutions, “Afghanistan also must not pose a security threat to any country”.
The Taliban claim to be unaware of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri’s presence in Afghanistan after the US announced it had killed him in a drone strike in Kabul on August 2.
The EU statement stated that the EU’s basic humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people depends on “a stable, peaceful and prosperous” country and the Taliban’s adherence to human rights principles, “especially the rights of women and girls, children and minorities”.
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