Taliban urges international community to cooperate with their leadership

As the Taliban completed a year of rule in Afghanistan, acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi urged the world leaders as well as the international community to recognise the government and cooperate with the Taliban leadership.

"We should all work together to take advantage of this opportunity, and the international community should cooperate with Afghanistan and the new government," he said in a statement on Monday, reported Khaama Press.

The remarks were made by Muttaqi at a ceremony that was held on the first anniversary of the Islamic Emirate's return to power on August 15.

Speaking further, Muttaqi highlighted the Doha agreement and said that Afghanistan is not a threat against any country, including the United States, which is part of their commitment agreed upon during the peace negotiation in the Qatari capital, according to Khaama Press.

Meanwhile, the second Deputy Prime Minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi and spokesman of the Islamic Emirate Zabiullah Mujahid talked about the achievements their leadership brought about for the Afghan people and the nation.

Over the past year, the Taliban's regime has forced numerous Afghans to flee from the country and seek shelter in neighbouring nations.

Since the Taliban seized power in Kabul last year, the human rights situation has been exacerbated by a nationwide economic, financial and humanitarian crisis of unprecedented scale.

Acts of terror, killings, blasts and attacks have become a regular affair with unabated human rights violations involving ceaseless murder of civilians, destroying mosques and temples, assaulting women, and fueling terror in the region.

With the US troop's withdrawal from the country, large-scale violence has been unleashed creating political uncertainty in different parts of the country. At least 59 per cent of the population is now in need of humanitarian assistance - an increase of 6 million people compared with the beginning of 2021, according to UNAMA.

According to UNAMA, there have been significant changes in the country's media landscapes well, including the closure of more than half of the free media, the evacuation of hundreds of journalists, and rising work restrictions, violence, and threats against journalists.

The ever-increasing restrictions against media in Afghanistan have also drawn widespread criticism globally with the United Nations (UN) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) decrying the arrests, demanding the Taliban stop harassing local journalists and stifling freedom of speech through continued detentions and threats.

Moreover, the Taliban dismissed all women from leadership posts in the civil service and prohibited girls in most provinces from attending secondary school. Taliban decrees prohibit women from travelling unless accompanied by a male relative and require women's faces to be covered in public--including women TV newscasters.

They also dismantled the system to respond to gender-based violence, created new barriers to women accessing health care, blocked women's aid workers from doing their jobs, and attacked women's rights protesters.