'We respect women a lot': Taliban holds 3,000-delegate men-only summit
Men will represent women at a 3,000-delegate all-male gathering on Afghanistan's future, a senior Taliban figure has said.
The meeting in Kabul on Thursday is the first major gathering of Islamic clerics and tribal elders since the Taliban seized power last August.
Critics and civil society groups said it will not have legitimacy if Afghan women, who number around 20 million, do not attend.
The Taliban's acting deputy prime minister, Abdul Salam Hanafi, said men would represent women at the event.
"Women are our mothers, sisters. We respect them a lot," said Taliban Acting Deputy Prime Minister Abdul Salam Hanafi Wednesday. "When their sons are in the gathering, it means they are also involved, in a way, in the gathering."
“Different people with different views are going to gather. This will be a positive step for stability in Afghanistan and strengthening national unity,” he told state broadcaster RTA.
Hanafi said Islamic governance and economics, as well as the country's "social issues", would be under discussion at the men-only meeting. It is unclear if issues surrounding girls' secondary education or women's rights would be discussed.
The media are not allowed to attend.
The event, which is similar to the traditional "loya jirga" used by former President Ashraf Ghani to make national decisions, is seen as an attempt by the Taliban to improve its domestic legitimacy and so secure much-needed international recognition.
International governments are yet to recognise the former insurgent group as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan, since their take over last year, mainly because of their policies towards women and girls.
In March, the Taliban suspended secondary education for most teenage girls, women were ordered to cover
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