Crisis response

Gul Bano* and Karima* are activists who ran provincial branches of the ministry of women’s affairs in two different parts of Afghanistan. Their former offices have been taken over by the Taliban’s feared enforcers, the ministry for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice.

They are now in hiding, afraid of the men they helped put in prison for domestic violence and other abuses, many of them in the Taliban or with family links to the militants.

Najla Bouden Ramadhane, a university engineer with World Bank experience, has been lifted from political obscurity to become Tunisia's — and the Arab world's — first female prime minister.

The United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, Amina J. Mohammed, visited Somalia on Sunday, to express her solidarity with Somali women’s calls for full and equal participation in political life, and the support of the international community for timely, inclusive, peaceful and credible elections.

Kabul, Sep 19 (EFE).- Female politicians in Afghanistan on Sunday held their first press conference under the new Taliban regime, where they called for the restoration of women’s rights to education and work.

The conference, attended by 150 women, was organized by the Movement for Change of Afghanistan. Founded in 2013, it is the first women-oriented political party in the country and is led by outspoken rights campaigner and lawmaker Fawzia Koofi.