U.N. envoy’s farewell: My heart breaks for Afghan girls, women
ISLAMABAD — The U.N. representative in Afghanistan lamented in her farewell statement Thursday the harsh edicts that the Taliban have imposed on girls and women since they seized power in the country, denying them the right to education and work and forcing millions to stay at home.
Deborah Lyons, who is leaving her post as the U.N. chief’s special representative, said that the Afghanistan today is a very different country from the one she encountered two years ago. Her comments came in a statement that was released to the media; her successor has not yet been named.
“I could not have imagined, when I accepted this job, the Afghanistan that
I am now leaving,” she said. “My heart breaks in particular for the millions of Afghan girls who are denied their right to education, and the many Afghan women full of talent who are being told to stay at home.”
The Taliban overran the Afghan capital of Kabul in mid-August as the United States and NATO were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country. Afghanistan’s new rulers quickly started enforcing a sharply tougher line, harking back to similar radical measures when the Taliban last ruled the country, from 1996 to 2001.
They issued edicts requiring women to cover their faces except for their eyes in public, including women presenters on TV, and banned girls from attending school past the sixth grade.
At the same time, Afghanistan has seen persistent bombings and other attacks on civilians, often targeting the mainly Shiite Muslim ethnic Hazara minority. Most of the attacks have been claimed by the Islamic State group’s affiliate in the country, a bitter rival of the Taliban.
“It is an irony that now that there is space for everyone to help rebuild the country half of the population is confined and prevented from doing so,” said Lyons, who was appointed head of U.N. mission to Afghanistan in March 2020.