After a day of chaos and disarray, the Taliban declared they would grant amnesty for all Afghans and said they will secure the protection of women’s rights, and called on women to join government offices, The Associated Press reported Tuesday.
The unexpected move is an apparent effort to gain support from local populations who remain fearful of a return to the restrictive laws against women and girls from the Taliban’s rule more than two decades ago.
Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, explained that the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan with full dignity and honesty has announced a complete amnesty for all Afghanistan, especially those who were with the opposition or supported the occupiers for years and recently,” according to the AP.
The Taliban official also said that women have been the “the main victims of the more than 40 years of crisis in Afghanistan,” and that the insurgent group “doesn’t want the women to be the victims anymore.”
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“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is ready to provide women with the environment to work and study, and the presence of women in different (government) structures according to Islamic law and in accordance with our cultural values,” he added, the AP reported.
The remarks are the first comments revealing how the Taliban intends to govern since the group’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, culminating in Sunday’s fall of Kabul following the withdrawal of US troops from the country.
The takeover has led to widespread concerns among human rights groups and local populations that the expanded rights women and girls have gained in the country over the past 20 years could be quickly turned back under a new Taliban regime.
The news agency also reported Tuesday that a group of women in hijabs demonstrated briefly in Kabul Tuesday while holding signs calling on the Taliban to not “eliminate women” from public life, as the group is still engaged in negotiations with members of Afghanistan’s fallen government.
U.S. lawmakers have also called for action to secure the protection of women’s rights in Afghanistan.
“A failure to act now will seal their fate, and the generation of girls who grew up with freedoms, education and dreams of building their country’s future will die with them,” Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) said in a statement Monday.
