Brussels: The EU on Sunday said it was “particularly concerned” about worsening conditions for women and girls in Afghanistan after the country’s ruling Taliban violently broke up a women’s rally. Taliban fighters on Saturday fired in the air and beat up protesters taking part in a women’s “bread, work and freedom” march in Kabul. Some women were chased into nearby shops and hit with rifle butts. The violence underscored the Taliban’s increasing restrictions, especially on women, since they seized back control of Afghanistan a year ago, on August 15, 2021. “The EU is particularly concerned by the fate of Afghan women and girls who have seen their freedoms, rights, and access to basic services such as education being systematically denied,” the office of EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
“The EU reiterates that Afghanistan must adhere to the international treaties to which it is a State Party, including by upholding and protecting economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights, and allow for full, equal, and meaningful representation and participation of all Afghans in the governing of the country.”
