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KABUL: More than two years after the U.S. and Taliban peace agreement in Doha, a top Human Rights Watch official has lambasted the deal as incomprehensive which greatly excluded Afghan women from any future political engagement.
Heather Barr, associate director of the Women’s Rights Division at Human Rights Watch on Saturday said former US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad had undermined women’s rights in the Doha Agreement.
With women being increasingly socially and politically isolated in Afghanistan, Heather Barr has said that sidling women from key discussions about Afghanistan was contrary to the principles of the UN Security Council.
Barr considered the 2020 Doha Agreement as an example of ignoring women’s rights for a political settlement. She conceded Doha Agreement paved the way for the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan, which eventually caused the systematic violation of women’s rights after 2021.
This comes as human rights organizations had previously criticized the violation of basic rights of women, including accessing education, work, political and social engagements.
Meanwhile, the European Union Special Representative for Afghanistan Tomas Niklasson recently in a meeting with a number of Afghan women’s rights activists stressed that national dialogue is of paramount importance for providing space, participation and protecting women’s rights.
