Important for women in Afghanistan to participate in social, economic spheres: German MEP

According to Neumann, restrictions on women in Afghanistan are crushing the hopes of half of Afghan citizens and also diminishing economic opportunities.

"They are really crashing down public life, they are crashing down on half of the Afghan citizens, on so many hopes, and they are also diminishing economic opportunities for everyone in the country by all these decrees, bans and policies," she said, as quoted by Tolo News.

The German MEP urged the Taliban to end restrictions on women and uphold the practical involvement of women in the social and economic spheres.

"The rising engagement happens at the moment on the national level, where for example we have an EU delegation and of course our representative here," Neumann said.

Najibullah Jami, a political analyst, said: "Pressures and restrictions are not the solutions in Afghanistan; rather, the EU, the US, and the countries of the region should jointly take a positive and constructive solution with the Islamic Emirate."

Despite the Taliban's repeated assurances that it is committed to upholding those rights within the framework of Islamic law and that women will return to work and education after being given the proper conditions, there has been no sign of change to the current policies, according to Tolo News.

Recently, UN experts in their findings on the state of human rights and discrimination against Afghan women in Afghanistan, said the Taliban through its "most extreme forms of misogyny", has been destroying the relative progress towards gender equality achieved in the past two decades in the country, Afghanistan based Khaama Press reported.

This came following UN experts' eight-day visit to Afghanistan. UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett was also a part of the visit.

The mission took place from April 27 to May 4 in the context of a chronic humanitarian crisis and profound turmoil due to the most recent verdict banning Afghan women from working with the United Nations and non-governmental organizations, Khaama Press reported. (ANI)