Malala Yousafzai urges world not to turn back on women in Afghanistan during event with McEntee
Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee and activist Malala Yousafzai have criticized the EU for engaging with Taliban officials. They argue that such diplomatic contact normalizes a regime that systematically suppresses the rights of women and girls.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing tension between pragmatic international diplomacy and the protection of human rights in Afghanistan.
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN Affairs Helen McEntee has hit out at the EU for its decision to welcome a Taliban delegation to Brussels earlier this year, saying it should not have happened.
Speaking alongside Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai during an event on women’s rights in Afghanistan, five years on from the Taliban takeover, McEntee said the EU’s welcome of the Taliban to Brussels “normalises” the repressive regime.
Since 2021, the rights of women and girls have been systematically rolled back under the Taliban.
Girls have been banned from secondary education, age restrictions on marriage have been removed, and life for women at home and in public spaces in Afghanistan has in many ways become much less safe.
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