Taliban Announce Multi-ethnic Government, Women Absent

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Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, announced on Tuesday the formation of the first government in Afghanistan since the movement took power on August 15. The new government includes diverse ethnicities as part of the commitments made earlier by the Taliban.

Mujahid's words were announced in a press conference held in the Afghan capital, Kabul, in which names of the government members were revealed. In this context, the appointed health minister belongs to the Shiite Hazara minority, and the minister of commerce comes from the Panjshir state. The state is known to have a Tajik majority, and that it has long been hostile to the Taliban.

Women's issues under the Taliban government 

Mujahid announced that the movement is finalizing the return of girls to school, pointing at the same time to the need to secure a safe environment for their return.

These promises come in light of the growing fears among Afghan women of a reiteration of repressive policies pursued by the movement during the first period of its control over the country between 1996 and 2001. 

Such fears are cemented by the decisions taken by the movement since it took power, the most prominent of which was the replacement of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs with the Ministry of Enjoining Good and Forbidding Wrong.

Zabihullah Mujahid commented on the economic crisis hitting Afghanistan, saying that they possess the money but need time to initiate the process. 

Pakistan calls for unfreezing Afghan assets

In the same context, Pakistan called on the international community before the start of the United Nations General Assembly to lift the embargo on billions of dollars of Afghan assets frozen since the Taliban's return to power.