EU official emphasizes need for girls’ education in Afghanistan

KABUL (TOLOnews): The deputy head of the European Union Delegation in Afghanistan, Arnout Pauwels, in an interview with TOLOnews emphasized the importance of girls’ access to education and observation of human rights in the country.
“The number one issue is girls’ going to school. It is absolutely the number one issue for the European Union. The second one is allowing women to go back to work, and third are in general human rights, freedom of media, respect for the rights of life, no extra judicial killings and after that it is about building a more cohesive political system,” he said.
Pauwels said that recognition of the Islamic Emirate is a long process.
“I see recognition as the result of a long process and not as the start of something. It is not correct to think that (we) will recognize and then things will get better. No, first things have to get better and then we can talk about recognition,” Pauwels said.
This comes as earlier, the Islamic Emirate said the international community’s call for formation of inclusive government is an interference in Afghanistan.
But the deputy head of the EU delegation in Afghanistan said it is not intervention. “The conversation has to be in a respectful way when both sides listen to each other and then take forward or not? And we will listen very carefully to what the leadership not only says but also see what they do and then take our own decision,” he said.
The international community has put girls’ education, human rights and prevention of use of Afghan soil by the terrorists’ group as the main condition for recognition of the caretaker government of Afghanistan.