Female delegates at intra-Afghan talks in Doha say many women pin hopes on them to advance dialogue on women's rights. Taliban fighters had just detonated a car bomb close to the office of Afghanistan's main intelligence service in Ghazni, killing eight security personnel and six civilians, including a child. The powerful blast on Sunday wounded at least people, including 60 children attending classes at a nearby private school.
Sponsored by Qatar and Germany, the two-day talks in Doha are attended by Taliban representatives and about 50 Afghan politicians and activists, including 10 female delegates. The gathering was organised in a bid to initiate direct dialogue on sustaining peace and equality in war-torn Afghanistan after the complete withdrawal of foreign troops, which is among the issues on the table in separate United States -Taliban talks also held in Doha but paused for two days to allow for the intra-Afghan meeting to take place.
For the first time since Washington began negotiating with the Taliban last year, two Afghan government officials came face-to-face with Taliban representatives at the intra-Afghan gathering. Before the Taliban was toppled in a US-led invasion in , women were banned from working and accessing education under the armed group's five-year rule. The scholars were asked to encourage Afghan men to bring their daughters and wives to her Kabul-based foundation, called Noor Educational and Capacity Development Organization, where Afghani provided free education to women and young girls.
At the Doha event, women delegates and the Taliban shared tables while dining and respectfully spoke to each other. Before coming face-to-face with the Taliban, the female participants agreed to be patient during the talks. During the first day of the event, Fawzia Koofi, a women's rights activist and politician, recalled how her husband was put in jail under the Taliban rule and that she was beaten for applying nail polish.
A Taliban representative replied by saying: We don't have a problem with that. But if Afghan women prefer wearing a burqa, which is part of the Afghan tradition, we don't have a problem with that too. Meanwhile, the US-Taliban negotiations will resume on Tuesday, with both sides aiming to hammer out the details of a framework agreement reached in January during the sixth round of their talks. Zalmay Khalilzad, who is leading the US side on its negotiations with the Taliban in Doha, told Al Jazeera that "substantive progress" has been made in the latest round of talks.
