The Afghan women’s delegation that attended the three-day meeting in Oslo, Norway, between the Taliban’s acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, and Western officials are now seeking political asylum in Norway, according to several February 5 reports. The activists presented a strong take on the radical Islamist regime’s atrocities against Afghan women.

“Pick up the phone now, call Kabul and ask the girls to be released immediately,” Afghan women’s rights activist Hoda Khamosh shouted at Taliban acting foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi, ABC reported. They had accused the Taliban of raiding the homes of female activists in Afghanistan, and many female activists, including Tamana Zaryabi Paryani and Parawana Ibrahimkhel, had since disappeared.

While the Taliban delegation had traveled first class on a plane chartered by the Norwegian government to Oslo to find a diplomatic solution to the problems surrounding Kabul after the withdrawal of American forces, the Afghan women did not seem happy. Women activists who have been intimidated by the extremist regime have protested against such so-called “diplomatic efforts” with the Taliban by Western governments.

“I’m sorry for a country like Norway for organizing this summit, for sitting with terrorists and for making agreements,” Wahida Amiri, an activist who has regularly protested, told a news agency. Kabul against the Taliban. Protesters said Norway had invited “criminals and terrorists” to hold talks and that they did not respect women’s rights or believe in freedom of expression. It was reported at the time that after the meeting, the women grew suspicious of the “suspicious” Taliban as they were afraid of the newly established government.

Taliban accuse Afghan women of ‘hiding behind civil rights protections’

On February 5, a Taliban official confirmed on Twitter that the women’s delegation that traveled to Oslo had requested asylum in the Nordic country. “Women who were invited to a meeting in Norway have now applied for asylum there,” said communications officer at the Taliban’s foreign ministry, Jairulá Shinwari. Shafi Azam, another all-male Taliban cabinet official, said Afghan women and youth “often hide behind civil rights protections and seek asylum abroad.”

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization previously warned in a report that female employment in Afghanistan fell by 16% in the third quarter of 2021. This could be attributed to the Taliban’s strict Sharia laws which prohibited women to work or follow an education alongside Men. Many women did not work for fear of reprisals from the Taliban. In January this year, the Taliban also demanded that women wear face-covering hijabs in public. Women activists have since staged scattered protests in Kabul to oppose oppressive Taliban rule.