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The United Nations apologized Friday for photos posted online of a senior delegation's security detail posing in front of the Taliban flag during a visit to Afghanistan this week. But U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq told CBS News the photos "should never have been taken."

The awkward incident highlights the tightrope the international community is trying to walk as Afghans suffer through a harsh winter with their long-vital international aid lifeline all but severed due to the Taliban's draconian crackdown on human rights.

Neither the U.N. nor the vast majority of governments around the world have formally recognized the Taliban regime that retook power in the country with the U.S. military coalition's swift withdrawal in August 2021. Most governments, including that of the U.S., are loathe to provide any financial assistance that could bolster the hardline Islamic group's power, and they have frozen millions of dollars in Afghan government cash reserves held overseas.

But the lack of incoming aid is only half of the problem for Afghanistan this winter. Since taking back power, the Taliban has methodically erased virtually all of the basic human rights gained by Afghan women and girls during the two-decade U.S.-led war that drove them from power in the country. Women have been barred from attending universities and most high schools, and from working for non-governmental organizations.

After an international uproar, that edict was revised slightly to allow women to work in the health care industry, where there's an urgent need for female doctors and nurses. But the other bans on women and girls remain in place.

Losing such a huge portion of the workforce has crippled aid agencies, including the U.N.'s own, which for more than 20 years had propped up Afghanistan's weak economy and basic food and health infrastructures.

The Taliban has not wavered in the face of tremendous international pressure to ease its restrictions on women, dismissing the calls as a "politicization" of human rights. The group's leaders have repeatedly insisted that they will rule Afghanistan according to their harsh interpretation of Islamic law, without compromise.

In a bid to pressure the Taliban to ease its restrictions on women, the United Nations sent a delegation led by two of its most senior female and pointedly, Muslim leaders to the country this week.

Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed led the mission, along with Sima Bahous, the head of the U.N. Women agency. After visiting a number of other Muslim majority nations and meeting the leaders of Islamic organizations to build solidarity and present a united voice against the Taliban's anti-women policies which have been condemned for months as anti-Islamic the delegation arrived in Kabul in the middle of this week.

They were there to meet Taliban leaders and women's groups for discussions on "women's and girls' rights and coexistence," according to the U.N.

After the mission, Mohammed told BBC News on Friday that most of the senior Taliban officials she'd met appeared ready to engage in a discussion on women's rights, but she indicated no serious breakthroughs, or even major progress, on getting the country's rulers to back down on their policies.

"I think there are many voices we heard, which are progressive in the way that we would like to go," Mohammed told BBC. "But there are others that really are not."

"I think the pressure we put in, the support we give to those that are thinking more progressively, is a good thing," she said. "This visit, I think, gives them more voice and pressure to help the argument internally."

In a statement provided by the U.N. later Friday, Mohammed said the restrictions reintroduced by the Taliban "present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services Right now, Afghanistan is isolating itself, in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis and one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change."

"We must do everything we can to bridge this gap," she said.

The U.N. leaders met with the Taliban deputy prime minister in Kabul, and a senior regional official in the group's heartland in the province of Kandahar, but it was not clear whether the prime minister had met the women, and a meeting with the Taliban's supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada, was never on the cards.

"Afghan women left us no doubt of their courage and refusal to be erased from public life. They will continue to advocate and fight for their rights, and we are duty bound to support them in doing so," Bahous said in the statement from the U.N., calling the last year and a half in Afghanistan "a grave women's right crisis and a wakeup call for the international community. It shows how quickly decades of progress on womens rights can be reversed in a matter of days."

Haq, the U.N. deputy spokesman in New York, said the series of photos that emerged of the delegation's security detail smiling under the Taliban's white flag had been taken "while the Deputy Secretary-General was meeting the de facto leaders in Afghanistan."

"The photo should never have been taken. It was a mistake, and we apologize for it," said Haq.

In one of the photos, one of the security team is seen pointing at the Taliban flag on a wall behind the group. Similar versions of the same flag, a plain black or white banner with Arabic script reading: "There is no God but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger," are used not only by the Taliban, but frequently in ISIS propaganda photos after one of the group's members carries out an attack or pledges allegiance.

"Foreign men with UN badges pose in photos in front of Taliban's flag as they smile. Under this same flag, women are erased and the people of Afghanistan are starved and deprived of basic rights and dignity," said one of the many critics of the photos, which were shared widely on social media, on Twitter. "Well done UN."

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Top U.N. women's visit to pressure Afghanistan's Taliban on rights ...

Islamabad

Taliban authorities in Afghanistan have arrested five men, including two Chinese nationals, for allegedly trying to smuggle an estimated 1,000 metric tons of lithium-bearing rocks out of the country.

The arrests and the seizure of the rocks were made in the eastern Afghan border city of Jalalabad.

The Chinese nationals and their Afghan collaborators were planning to illegally transport the precious stones to China via Pakistan, said Taliban intelligence officials in comments aired Sunday by Afghan television channels.

Mohammad Rasool Aqab, a senior official at the Afghan Ministry of Mines and Petroleum, estimated the rocks contained up to 30% of lithium. They were secretly extracted from Nuristan and Kunar, two of the several Afghan provinces along the border with Pakistan, he added.

The Islamist rulers have banned extraction and sale of lithium since reclaiming power in Afghanistan in August 2021 after all U.S. and NATO troops withdrew from the country.

Afghanistan reportedly sits on an estimated $1 trillion worth of rare earth minerals, including huge deposits of lithium, but decades of war have prevented the development of Afghan mining.

Lithium is a key component in rechargeable batteries and it is used in clean technologies to tackle climate change, pushing global demand for the metal to soaring levels.

The Taliban government has not yet been formally recognized by the world over human rights concerns, particularly its restrictions on womens access to work and education.

The United States and the Western nations at large imposed economic sanctions on Afghanistan immediately after the Taliban took control.

The Islamist group has increased coal exports to Pakistan in recent months, helping them generate much-needed revenues to fund Afghan budgetary needs and pay public sector employee salaries.

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Taliban Arrest Chinese Nationals for Allegedly Smuggling Afghan Lithium

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed

A top UN official believes progress is being made towards reversing bans on women taking part in public life in Afghanistan.

Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed has been in Kabul for a four-day visit to urge the Taliban to reconsider.

Last month, the country's Islamist rulers banned all women from working for non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The move caused several aid agencies to suspend operations.

Speaking to the BBC at the end of her trip, Ms Mohammed said most senior Taliban officials she met had been ready to engage over the rights of girls and women.

However, she described the talks as tough and cautioned that it would be a very long journey before the leadership took the fundamental steps required for international recognition of their rule.

"I think there are many voices we heard, which are progressive in the way that we would like to go," Ms Mohammed said. "But there are others that really are not."

"I think the pressure we put in the support we give to those that are thinking more progressively is a good thing. So this visit, I think, gives them more voice and pressure to help the argument internally."

Ms Mohammed also criticised the international community, including other Islamic states, for not doing enough to engage on the issue.

Since seizing back control of the country last year, the Taliban has steadily restricted women's rights - despite promising its rule would be softer than the regime seen in the 1990s.

As well as the ban on female university students - now being enforced by armed guards - secondary schools for girls remain closed in most provinces.

Women have also been prevented from entering parks and gyms, among other public places.

It justified the move to ban Afghan women from working for NGOs by claiming female staff had broken dress codes by not wearing hijabs.

Ms Mohammed's comments come as Afghanistan suffers its harshest winter in many years.

The Taliban leadership blames sanctions and the refusal of the international community to recognise their rule for the country's deepening crisis.

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Ms Mohammed said her message to Afghanistan's rulers was that they must first demonstrate their commitment to internationally recognised norms and that humanitarian aid cannot be provided if Afghan women are not allowed to help.

"They're discriminating against women there. for want of a better word, they become invisible, they're waiting them out, and that can't happen," she said.

But she said the Taliban's stance was that the UN and aid organisations were "politicising humanitarian aid".

"They believe that... the law applies to anyone anywhere and their sovereign rights should be respected," she said.

The Taliban health ministry has clarified that women can work in the health sector, where female doctors and nurses are essential, but Ms Mohammed said this was not enough.

"There are many other services that we didn't get to do with access to food and other livelihood items that that will allow us to see millions of women and their families survive a harsh winter, be part of growth and prosperity, peace," she said.

This visit by the most senior woman at the UN also sends a message that women can and should play roles at all levels of society.

Excerpt from:
Afghanistan: Some Taliban open to women's rights talks - top UN official

Deputy Secretary-General, Amina Mohammed, the Executive Director of UN Women,Sima Bahous, and the Assistant Secretary-General for UN political, peacebuilding and peace operations,Khaled Khiari, spend four days on a fact-finding mission in Afghanistan, to engage with Taliban leaders, and underscore UN solidarity with the Afghan people, according to a press release issued to correspondents on Friday.

In meetings with de facto authorities in Kabul and Kandahar, the delegation directly conveyed the alarm over the recent decree banning women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations, a move that undermines the work of numerous organizations helping millions of vulnerable Afghans.

The latest clampdown on working women followed edicts from the fundamentalist Talibanto close universities to female students, until further notice, and preventing girls from attending secondary school.

Women and girls have also been ordered to stop using parks, gyms, public bath houses, and banned from most areas of the workforce, together with other restrictions on their freedom of movement, in line with the authorities interpretation of Sharia law.

The ban on local women working in the crucial aid sector came into force last month, prompting many aid agencies to suspend operations, as they were unable to reach many families in need, without the support of female staff.

In response, Taliban rulers did announce some exemptions, that would allow women health workers to go about their lifesaving work.

My message was very clear, said the UN deputy chief. While we recognize the important exemptions made, these restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their rights and depriving the communities of their services.

Our collective ambition is for a prosperous Afghanistan that is at peace with itself and its neighbours, and on a path to sustainable development. But right now, Afghanistan is isolating itself, in the midst of a terrible humanitarian crisis and one of the most vulnerable nations on earth to climate change, she added. We must do everything we can to bridge this gap.

During their mission, Ms Mohammed and Ms Bahous met with affected communities, humanitarian workers, civil society and other key actors, in Kabul, the Taliban heartland of Kandahar, and Herat.

We have witnessed extraordinary resilience. Afghan women left us no doubt of their courage and refusal to be erased from public life. They will continue to advocate and fight for their rights, and we are duty bound to support them in doing so, UN Womens top executive Ms. Bahous said.

What is happening in Afghanistan is a grave women's right crisis and a wakeup call for the international community.

It shows how quickly decades of progress on womens rights can be reversed in a matter of days. UN Women stands with all Afghan women and girls and will continue to amplify their voices to regain all their rights."

The United Nations and its partners, including national and international non-governmental organizations, are helping more than 25 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid to survive, and remain committed to staying and delivering.

While the recent exemptions to the ban introduced by the de facto authorities are opening spaces for humanitarians to continue - and in some cases resume - operations, these remain limited to few sectors and activities, said the UN statement on Friday.

The Taliban's restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan will exclude women from participation in political activities such as voting, as it was for this woman at the Bamyan polling center for Afghanistans parliamentary elections, which were held on the 20th of October 2018.

The effective delivery of humanitarian assistance is predicated on principles that require full, safe and unhindered access for all aid workers, including women, Ms Mohammed said.

The visit to Afghanistan followed a series of high-level consultations on Afghanistan across the Gulf and Asia, the UN reported.

The delegation met with the leadership of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), the Islamic Development Bank, groups of Afghan women in the Turkish and Pakistani capitals of Ankara and the Islamabad, and a group of Ambassadors and Special Envoys to Afghanistan, based in Doha.

The delegation convened with government leaders from the region and religious leaders to advocate for the crucial role and full participation of women and rally support for the Afghan people, the statement added.

Girls play volleyball at a school in Herat, Afghanistan, in 2016.

Throughout the visits, the UNs crucial role as a bridge builder towards finding lasting solutions was emphasized, as well as the urgency to deliver lifesaving support and maintain effective engagement, led by the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

The top UN delegation called for efforts to be intensified to reflect the urgency of the crisis facing Afghan women and girls, and stressed the importance of a unified response by the international community.

The UN reported that a proposal to hold an international conference on women and girls in the Muslim World, during March this year, was also considered and agreed in principle.

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Afghanistan: Top UN delegation tells Taliban to end confinement ...

Afghanistan is disintegrating. It cant afford to give up opium  Haaretz

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Afghanistan is disintegrating. It cant afford to give up opium - Haaretz