ISLAMABAD — The Taliban authorities is making an attempt to take cost of extra Afghan embassies overseas, a spokesman mentioned Saturday, amid their continued worldwide isolation due to restrictions on girls and ladies.

The Taliban initially promised a extra reasonable rule after their takeover in August 2021, however as a substitute imposed sweeping bans and different measures curbing primary freedoms.

The U.N. and international governments have fiercely condemned the restrictions on feminine training and employment, and the worldwide neighborhood stays cautious of formally recognizing the Taliban, though some nations retain an energetic diplomatic mission in Afghanistan, together with Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, and China.

“The Islamic Emirate has despatched diplomats to at the least 14 nations and efforts are underway to take cost of different diplomatic missions overseas,” the federal government’s primary spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid mentioned in a video. “Diplomats of the previous authorities are persevering with their actions in coordination with the Overseas Ministry.”

The administration has despatched its diplomats to Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Russia, China, Kazakhstan and different Arab and African nations, in response to Mujahid. He gave no additional particulars.

In February, authorities handed over management of Afghanistan’s embassy in Tehran to envoys of the Taliban authorities. It was beforehand staffed by envoys from the previous U.S.-backed Afghan authorities.

The deputy spokesman for the federal government, Bilal Karimi, was unable to instantly present figures on what number of Afghan diplomatic missions are energetic abroad or what number of the administration has taken cost of since August 2021.

“There are a lot of embassies overseas. The Islamic Emirate desires to have diplomatic relations with all nations and transfer ahead with good interactions,” he advised The Related Press. “It’s our hope that embassies shall be opened in all nations as quickly as official relations start with the Islamic Emirate.”

The Overseas Ministry spokesman didn’t reply to the AP’s questions on embassies.

In January, the highest-ranking lady on the United Nations, Amina Mohammed, mentioned the Taliban need worldwide recognition and Afghanistan’s U.N. seat, which is presently held by the previous authorities led by Ashraf Ghani.

“Recognition is one leverage that we now have and we must always maintain on to,” she mentioned, after assembly Taliban ministers in Kabul and Kandahar to attempt to reverse their crackdowns on girls and ladies.

They’ve banned ladies from center faculty, highschool and college and banned girls from most fields of employment, together with at nongovernmental teams. Girls have additionally been ordered to put on head-to-toe clothes in public and are barred from parks and gymnasiums.

Faculties reopened for the brand new tutorial yr final week with out teenage ladies, greater than 18 months after the ban on secondary training got here into impact.

Universities reopened after the winter break in early March with out their feminine college students, and the ban on NGO work continues to be in place, though some support companies have partially resumed their actions by way of exemptions.

Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, mentioned Friday that greater than three months have handed because the “insupportable ban” on feminine support staff in Afghanistan. “We have now made some native progress, permitting girls’s return to work, however nonetheless await nationwide permits.”