Taliban authorities were told women must be included in public life, U.N. political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo said on Monday as she defended a decision to sideline civil society groups at official talks in Doha.
Rights organizations have strongly criticized the controversial U.N. move to exclude the groups, including women's rights activists, from the two-day meeting on Afghanistan as the price for the Taliban government's participation.
"Authorities will not sit across the table with Afghan civil society in this format, but they have heard very clearly the need to include women and civil society in all aspects of public life," DiCarlo told a Doha news conference.