UN’s top woman in Afghanistan for talks on Taliban crackdown

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The highest-ranking woman in the United Nations has arrived in Kabul at the head of a U.N. delegation promoting the rights of women and girls. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed’s vist Tuesday came in response to a crackdown on women by Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers. Mohammed is a former Nigerian Cabinet minister and a Muslim. U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said Tuesday that Mohammed was joined by the executive director of the U.N. agency promoting gender equality and women’s rights and Assistant Secretary General for political affairs Khaled Khiari. Haq says U.N. officials have held high-level consultations across the Gulf, Asia and Europe “to promote and protect women’s and girls’ rights.”