US names envoy to defend women's rights in Afghanistan

WASHINGTON • The United States on Wednesday appointed an envoy to defend the rights of Afghan women, stepping up efforts on a key priority as the Taliban ratchet up restrictions.

Ms Rina Amiri, an Afghan-born US mediation expert who served at the State Department under former president Barack Obama, will take the role of special envoy for Afghan women, girls and human rights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced.

Months after the US ended its 20-year war in Afghanistan, Mr Blinken said that Ms Amiri will address issues of "critical importance to me" and the rest of US President Joe Biden's administration.

"We desire a peaceful, stable and secure Afghanistan, where all Afghans can live and thrive in political, economic and social inclusivity," Mr Blinken said.

The Taliban imposed an ultra-austere brand of Islam on Afghanistan during their 1996-2001 regime before they were toppled by a US invasion, including banning women from working and girls from education.

Despite Taliban pledges to act differently after their August takeover, many women remain barred from returning to work and girls are largely cut off from secondary schooling. Women are now also not allowed to travel long distances without a male escort.

Writing on Twitter shortly before her appointment, Ms Amiri asked: "I wonder how those that rehabilitated the Taliban by reassuring the world that they had evolved explain the Taliban's reinstatement of regressive and draconian policies against women."

The Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice earlier asked television channels to stop showing programmes featuring women actors and called on female television journalists to wear headscarves.

Groups of Afghan women have persisted in speaking out, including through public protests.

Ms Amiri left Afghanistan as a child, with her family settling in California. She became outspoken about Afghans living under Taliban rule, especially women, while still a student as the Sept 11 attacks prompted the US war.

She went on to become an adviser to the late US diplomat Richard Holbrooke, whose last assignment was on Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has also worked with the United Nations.

In a recent essay, Ms Amiri, now at New York University, called for "principled yet pragmatic diplomatic engagement" with the Taliban while continuing to hold off diplomatic recognition.

She doubted that Afghans born after the Taliban's last regime would accept a return to the previous treatment of women, saying that the country has "internalised the progress and cultural changes of the past 20 years".

In a letter last month to Mr Biden, all 24 women serving in the US Senate urged him to develop an "inter-agency plan" to support Afghan women's rights.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE