Taliban vow to respect women’s rights within norms of Islamic law

Many women have expressed dread that the two-decade Western experiment to expand their rights and remake Afghanistan would not survive the resurgent Taliban

Afghan women and children travel in a motorcycle cart during fighting between Taliban and Afghan security forces in Herat province, west of Kabul. Picture: Hamad Sarfarazi/AP

A Taliban spokesman gave a qualified promise that the insurgents who overran Afghanistan in recent days would respect women’s rights.

In his first news conference, Zabihullah Mujahid, who had been a shadowy figure for years, stressed the Taliban’s efforts to convince the world that it has changed from the group that imposed a brutal rule on the country in the 1990s.