Women's rights won't be affected, says Taliban, warns US not to interfere with culture

Amid widespread international concerns, a Taliban spokesperson told Fox News on Friday that 'there will be no issue about women's rights' in Afghanistan after the group took over the war-torn nation.

Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said that he opposes the views that 'women should have an education without (a) hijab."

He said, "That is a change of culture. They (women) can receive education with hijab and they can work with hijab," Fox News quoted.

"There will be no issue about the women’s rights. No problem about their education, their work," Shaheen said, adding, "But we should not be after changing each other’s culture as we are not intending to change your (the US) culture, you should not be changing our culture."

Talking about future relations with the US, the Taliban spokesperson said, "We should be focusing on how can we work together in a positive and constructive way which is in the best of interest of both sides."

The withdrawal of the US military from Afghanistan, which was completed on August 31, he said was the 'closure of one chapter in the nation's history.'

"We have closed one chapter. For us it was occupation. We ended that, we were staging resistance," Shaheen told Fox News.

"But now it is closed. It is the past. We have to focus on the future that is better for them and for us."

The Taliban spokesperson comments came as reports suggested that the group's co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar will be in charge of the new government, which will be soon be announced in Kabul, Reuters reported.

Source : DNA India