The United Nations has implored the world to not forget the plight of Afghanistan's women and children despite other international crises, one year after the Taliban's return to power. The war-ravaged nation is suffering profound hardship including a staggering 95% of its population undernourished, United Nations Population Fund executive director Natalia Kanem warned in a statement on the anniversary of the hardline Islamists capturing Kabul.
"As the world faces multiple, overlapping crises, we must not forget the women and girls of Afghanistan. When women's and girls' basic rights are denied, we are all diminished," Ms Kanem said, denouncing the "continuous erosion" of females' access to education and health care.
"One year since the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, the country remains in the throes of a deep economic and humanitarian crisis," she warned.
"Soaring food and fuel prices - exacerbated by a drought and the war in Ukraine - have resulted in an estimated 95% of the population, and nearly all female-headed households, not having enough to eat."
In a separate statement at the weekend, UN Under-Secretary-General Sima Bahous, who also heads the gender equality agency UN Women, denounced the "meticulously constructed policies of inequality" set up by the Taliban. "We must continue to elevate the voices of Afghan women and girls who are fighting every day for their right to live free and equal lives," she said.
"Their fight is our fight. What happens to women and girls in Afghanistan is our global responsibility."
Taliban fighters celebrated the anniversary of their return to power - and the departure of US troops after two decades of intervention - by chanting victory slogans in Kabul.
Some people fired celebratory gunshots in the air in Kabul and Taliban fighters gathered, waving the group's black and white flag to mark a year since they marched into the capital after a stunning series of battlefield victories.
"This day is the day of the victory of truth over falsehood and the day of salvation and freedom of the Afghan nation," said Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid in a statement.
While the country is safer than it was when the hardline Islamist movement was fighting against US-led foreign forces and their Afghan allies, a local offshoot of Islamic State has carried out several attacks.
Yet that relative security cannot mask the scale of the challenge the Taliban faces in setting Afghanistan on a path of economic growth and stability. There are huge pressures on the economy, caused in large part by the country's isolation as foreign governments refuse to recognise its rulers.
Development aid upon which the country relied so heavily has been cut as the international community demands that the Taliban respect the rights of Afghans, particularly women and girls whose access to work and education has been curtailed.
The Taliban is demanding that $9bn in central bank reserves held overseas be returned, but talks with the United States face hurdles, including US demands that a Taliban leader subject to sanctions step down from his position as second in command at the bank. The Taliban refuses to cede to these demands, saying that they respect all Afghans' rights within the framework of their interpretation of Islamic law.
And until there is a major shift in either side's position, there is no immediate fix in sight for spiralling prices, rising joblessness and hunger that will get worse as winter sets in."We are all heading to darkness and misfortune," said Amena Arezo, a doctor from southeastern Ghazni province. "People have no future, especially women."
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