Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking with his international counterparts to promote the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.

We have repeatedly condemned Taliban restrictions on women and girls' rights, including through UN Security Council and Human Rights Council resolutions and, most recently, at a G7+ meeting of Special Representatives in Geneva on 16 December. As the Foreign Secretary has said, exclusion of women from all aspects of public life is a tragic setback for Afghanistan. Officials from the Doha-based UK Mission to Afghanistan continue to press Taliban acting ministers and Afghan officials on human rights abuses in Afghanistan, including the most recent ban on female medical education. We are committed that at least 50 percent of people reached by our £161 million aid programme in Afghanistan will be women and girls.