- Title: Evacuated Afghan women's right activist calls for talks with Taliban leaders
- Date: 26th August 2021
- Summary: DUESSELDORF, GERMANY (AUGUST 26, 2021) (CORONAPOOL) AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST AND ONE OF THE COUNTRY'S FIRST FEMALE MAYORS, ZARIFA GHAFARI, ARRIVING FOR A STATEMENT TOGETHER WITH PREMIER OF NORTH-RHINE WESTPHALIA AND CDU CANDIDATE FOR CHANCELLOR, ARMIN LASCHET (SOUNDBITE) (German) PREMIER OF NORTH-RHINE WESTPHALIA AND CDU CANDIDATE FOR CHANCELLOR, ARMIN LASCHET, SAYING: "These negotiations by western governments with the Taliban are ongoing, with the aim of getting people out of Afghanistan by civil aviation or land routes even beyond 31 August." (SOUNDBITE) (German) PREMIER OF NORTH-RHINE WESTPHALIA AND CDU CANDIDATE FOR CHANCELLOR, ARMIN LASCHET, SAYING: "And for German foreign policy, it also means: something like this must not happen again. We need a National Security Council in the Chancellory where all the information comes together at the right time." (SOUNDBITE) (English) AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHT ACTIVIST AND ONE OF COUNTRY'S FIRST FEMALE MAYORS, ZARIFA GHAFARI, SAYING: "I am really happy that I can speak out on behalf on those unspoken Afghan women around the country, who are sad nowadays and who are afraid for their life, their today and their future and all their gains of 20 years." (SOUNDBITE) (English) AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHT ACTIVIST AND ONE OF COUNTRY'S FIRST FEMALE MAYORS, ZARIFA GHAFARI, SAYING: "If the (Taliban) really want to govern Afghanistan, they are not able to govern without 50 percent of the population. Women were the biggest part of developments in Afghanistan, and whatever we had 20 years back, the most was built by women of this country." (SOUNDBITE) (English) AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHT ACTIVIST AND ONE OF COUNTRY'S FIRST FEMALE MAYORS, ZARIFA GHAFARI, SAYING: "I am not sure they can build a country the same as it was 20 years ago without the help of women and without their cooperation. I call on their leaders to please sit and talk. I am taking the responsibility, I am ready to talk to them wherever around the world they are ready and start negotiating on behalf of all Afghan women." (SOUNDBITE) (English) AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHT ACTIVIST AND ONE OF COUNTRY'S FIRST FEMALE MAYORS, ZARIFA GHAFARI, SAYING: "All around Germany I love to sit with anyone who is able to speak to me, who is really eager to know about Afghanistan and the realities on the ground. It's important to have women and I would love to have women's leaders who listen to me and help women in solidarity with Afghan women." (SOUNDBITE) (German) PREMIER OF NORTH-RHINE WESTPHALIA AND CDU CANDIDATE FOR CHANCELLOR, ARMIN LASCHET, SAYING: "The new Afghan government will also need help from abroad. Otherwise, a humanitarian catastrophe will happen for millions of people. And to call for this with clear political demands, above all to be united for once as the European Union, if possible together with the United States, is the task we have to work on here. That requires political leadership. That requires the will to really work together in Europe. And courageous women like Mrs. Ghafari give you a strong tailwind." GHAFARI AND LASCHET LEAVING VARIOUS OF GHAFARI AND LASCHET TAKING PART IN ROUND TABLE DISCUSSION ON AFGHAN WOMEN
- Embargoed: 9th September 2021 13:44
- Keywords: Afghanistan CDU Chancellor candidate Armin Laschet Taliban former Afghan mayor Zarifa Ghafari
- Location: DUESSELDORF, GERMANY
- City: DUESSELDORF, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Europe
- Reuters ID: LVA001ERX0SAV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: THIS EDIT CONTAINS WHITE FLASHES
Former Afghan mayor and women's rights activist Zarifa Ghafari, who fled to Germany, on Thursday (August 26) called for the Taliban militants to start talks on women's rights with her.
"I am not sure they can build a country the same as it was 20 years ago without the help of women and without their cooperation. I call on their leaders to please sit and talk. I am taking the responsibility, I am ready to talk to them wherever around the world they are ready and start negotiating on behalf of all Afghan women", she told reporters ahead of a round table discussion in the western German city of Duesseldorf, which she participated in together with the candidate for chancellor of Angela Merkel's conservatives, Armin Laschet.
Laschet, whose campaign to succeed Merkel as conservative chancellor has been faltering, has been criticised by rivals for saying that there must not be a repeat of Europe's 2015 migrant crisis when Merkel welcomed almost one million asylum seekers.
"Negotiations by western governments with the Taliban are ongoing, with the aim to get people out of Afghanistan by civil aviation or land routes even beyond 31 August," he promised.
Ghafari, who fled to Germany a few days ago and who was one the country's first female mayors in Maidan Shahr west of Kabul until the Taliban seized power last week, said she was now working to draw attention to the plight of those left behind by speaking out "on behalf on those unspoken Afghan women around the country."
The German military has airlifted more than 5,200 people from Kabul so far, including 4,200 Afghans and 505 Germans, according to Chief of Defence Eberhard Zorn.
Germany is likely to end evacuation flights on Thursday, according to security sources.
(Production: Erol Dogrudogan, Petra Wischgoll, Ulrike Heil) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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