UN envoy defends failure to include Afghan women in upcoming meeting with the Taliban in Qatar

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations’ top official in Afghanistan is defending the failure to include Afghan women in the upcoming first meeting between the Taliban and envoys from 22 countries. U.N. special envoy Roza Otunbayeva insists that demands for women’s rights are certain to be raised. She was pummeled with questions from journalists Friday about criticism from human rights organizations at the omission of Afghan women from the meeting in Qatar’s capital Doha from June 30-July 1. Otunbayeva, former president of Kyrgyzstan, insisted after briefing the Security Council that nobody dictated conditions to the U.N. The Taliban seized power in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew following two decades of war, and barring women from most education and employment.