Limitations on Afghan women harms 20-year gains: UK Minister

KABUL (TOLOnews): The foreign affairs committee of the UK parliament arranged a meeting on the county’s policies vis-a-vis Afghanistan.

Lord Ahmad, UK’s Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia, who was also speaking at the meeting said that women and girls’ rights have had setbacks in Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
Lord Ahmad said that ongoing limitations on Afghan women and girls will damage the gains of the past two decades in Afghanistan.

“And I think many of the gains that we were able to achieve, particularly on the rights of minorities, on the rights of women and girls and the progress we saw in education — those are real setbacks on what we had achieved and that has been reflected and evidenced by what we have seen in the subsequent… I think it is deep regret for many who operated that NATO team,” said Lord Ahmad, UK’s Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia.

The British official also criticized the Afghan caretaker government’s policies against Afghan women and girls.

“The Taliban’s philosophy is nothing to do with Islam, it is a draconian subversive philosophy which is against different people and different communities and as we know against women and girls, “ said Lord Ahmad, UK’s Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia.

Lord Ahmad further added that UK has provided the Afghan people with over a half billion pounds in the first 18 months of the Islamic Emirate rule over Afghanistan.

“We provided over half a billion pounds in that first 18 months… to reach 50 percent Afghan women with our humanitarian assistance,” said Lord Ahmad, UK’s Minister of State for the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia.

Earlier, UK’s defense minister, in his interview with the Daily Mail on the first anniversary of the Islamic Emirate, said that the UK had come with correct goals to Afghanistan and added that the UK had done much for Afghanistan’s security, economic development, education and other sectors while arguing that the goals had failed.

He had also said that UK’s mission in Afghanistan failed with the loss of hundreds of its soldiers.