‘Don’t want women to be victims, they should be in govt’: Taliban

The Taliban declared an “amnesty” across Afghanistan and urged women to join its government, reported Al-Jazeera.

“A general amnesty has been declared for all, so you should start your routine life with full confidence,” said a statement from the Taliban. 

Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said, “The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims, they should be in government structure according to Shariah law.”

Enamullah’s statement represents the first comments on governance from a federal level across the country.

Enamullah further added, “The structure of government is not fully clear, but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership and all sides should join.”

Samangani remained vague on other details, however, implying people already knew the rules of the Islamic law the Taliban expected them to follow.

“Our people are Muslims and we are not here to force them to Islam,” he said.

Meanwhile, United States (US) President Joe Biden blamed the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan on Afghan political leaders who fled the country and the unwillingness of the US-trained Afghan army to fight the militant group.

In his speech, Biden said that the US troops could not defend a nation whose leaders “gave up and fled”, as did Afghan President Ashraf Ghani.

“I stand squarely behind my decision. After 20 years, I have learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces,” Biden said in a televised address from the White House.