A Taliban official on Tuesday announced a general “amnesty” for all in Afghanistan and urged women to join its government following the movement’s lightning takeover of the country.
Enamullah Samangani, member of Islamic Emirate’s cultural commission, made the comments on Afghan state television, which the militants now control.
“The Islamic Emirate don’t want women to be victims,” he said, using the militants’ term for Afghanistan.
He 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.”
The statement follows chaos and panic in the country’s capital after the swift departure of President Ashraf Ghani and the Taliban takeover of the capital. Afghans have mobbed the airport in an attempt to get flights out of the country as the United States and other governments rush to evacuate their citizens.
Meanwhile, women have been raising concerns about their future under a Taliban government, which stripped them of almost all their rights when it governed the country. U.S.-led forces overturned the Taliban at the end of 2001 after they refused to hand over late Osama bin Laden.
