G20 must help Afghan woman says Draghi

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 26 - The G20 must do all it can to help Afghan women maintain their rights and freedoms even under the Taliban, Premier Mario Draghi told the G20 Conference on Women's Empowerment at Santa Margherita Ligure near Genoa on Thursday.
    "The G20 must do everything possible to guarantee that Afghan women keep their freedoms and rights," he said in opening the forum, which Italy chairs as G20 duty president.
    "We must not deceive ourselves, Afghan girls and women are set to lose their freedom and dignity, to return to the sad condition in which they found themselves 20 years ago," Draghi went on.
    "They risk becoming second-class citizens once more, victims of systematic violence and discrimination, for the sole fact of being women.
    "We must defend women's rights everywhere in the world, above all where they are threatened.
    "The G20 must do all possible," the Italian premier insisted, "to ensure that Afghan women keep their fundamental freedoms and rights, in particular the right to education.
    "The conquests achieved in the last 20 years must be preserved".
    The Taliban is trying to present a more moderate face but there already reports of women and girls being forced to stay at home.
    The Islamist militants swept back into power as US and other western forces started leaving the Asian country 20 years after invading it to drive out al-Qaeda. (ANSA).