Washington stands with women in Iran, Afghanistan who face violence: US President

Kabul : US President Joe Biden has said that Washington stands with women in Iran and Afghanistan who are facing violence, Afghanistan-based TOLO News reported.

Biden made the remarks in a White House speech for Women's History Month. "We stand with women in Iran and Afghanistan who are facing down violence ... The budget I laid out two weeks ago, includes more than three billion dollars, a record amount, to advance general quality globally not just at home," he said, as quoted by TOLO News.

This comes as the Deputy Foreign Minister of the US, Wendy R. Sherman also called on Kabul to allow women and girls their basic rights.

"We again call on the Taliban to allow women and girls to exercise their basic human rights and the fundamental freedom to deliver on their commitment to the Afghan people and to the international community," she said, according to TOLO News.

According to the Taliban, women's rights are an internal issue in Afghanistan and foreign countries should not interfere.

"They should understand their responsibilities regarding Afghanistan. They impose their sanctions on the people of Afghanistan, on these women. They have frozen the money and don't allow improvement," said Islamic Emirate's spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid.

Recently, UN experts in a statement said that the denial of women's rights to education by the "Taliban de facto authorities" in Afghanistan has no justification on any grounds as it has harmed not only them but also the country's future in a crucial way.

The continued "denial of girls and young women's right to school in Afghanistan marks a global low in education, harming an entire gender, a generation, and the future of the country," TOLOnews reported citing the statement.

"On 22 March 2023, schools should be reopening to girls across Afghanistan. Instead, it appears that for the second successive school year, teenage girls will be banned from resuming their studies - making Afghanistan the only country in the world that forbids girls and young women from attending secondary school and places of higher education," the statement said.

"Education is an enabling right, which is crucial in and of itself and for realising other human rights such as the rights to work, to an adequate standard of living, to health, to participate in society and communities, to equality before the law and to fundamental freedoms. Denying this right to half the population effectively denies women and girls most other human rights," the statement read, as per TOLO News.

Qatar hosted talks on the future of education in Afghanistan and the challenges and obstacles facing it, the Qatar foreign ministry said in a statement.