Baerbock calls Taliban rule step backwards 'towards the Stone Age'

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has marked the second anniversary of the Taliban's seizure of power in Afghanistan with a condemnation of the Islamist group's governance of the country.
"Two years of Taliban rule mean two years of regression towards the Stone Age for the people of Afghanistan," Baerbock said in a statement issued on Monday.
Millions of people in the country were suffering from hunger and almost every week the Taliban were taking away another part of the freedom of women and girls, she said.
Those responsible should not think that their actions remain without consequences, the statement continued. "We, as the EU, have put those who have banned women and girls from schools, universities and parks on the sanctions list."
Baerbock ruled out normalizing relations with the Taliban government, which has so far not been recognized by any country in the world. This will not happen as long as they "continue to exclude half of society from working life and social participation," she said.
The German branch of the rights organization UN Women says that the Taliban issued more than 50 decrees affecting all aspects of women's lives between September 2021 and May 2023. Women are currently banned from accessing secondary education, working in the public sector and numerous public places such as parks, it said.
"Through a multitude of strict regulations, women and girls are practically excluded from public life and deprived of their future opportunities," UN Women Germany's chairwoman Elke Ferner said in a statement.