Kabul (Afghanistan): Afghan women face fear and an uncertain future due to the political situation that Afghanistan plunged into nearly two months ago, former Afghan Minister Masouda Jalal said on Friday.
Speaking at South Asia Defence Forum’s (SADF) webinar on Friday, Masouda Jalal – the only female candidate in the Afghan Presidential elections on 2004 – highlighted that there are concerns over women freedom in Afghanistan and that even under the Taliban rule, “women are afraid to live at the home alone”.
Jalal served as Afghanistan’s Minister for Women Affairs from October 2004 to 2006.
Referring to the Taliban’s act against the women, she said that the group “closed down the Ministry of Women Affairs and replaced it with the Ministry Of Virtue And Vice”.
She also said that the Taliban has banned girls from going to schools and added that “press freedom, freedom of expression assembly and association are also gone” from Afghanistan. Jala also expressed disappointment over Afghanistan’s economy and said that it is on the way to collapse.
“If the economy collapses in Afghanistan humanitarian efforts will get worse,” she said. Stressing that the Doha agreement impacted the current chaos of Afghanistan, Masouda said that the “training and support for the Afghan army for a long time have not been useful”.
Underlining that the withdrawal of the international forces happened irresponsible way and hurry, she pointed out that Afghans lost peace in Doha and lost the war in Kabul.