NEW YORK: American actor and United Nations special envoy Angelina Jolie has called for women to have a central role in ongoing Afghanistan peace talks, warning their exclusion would hamper any chance of lasting stability.
The US has held several rounds of talks with the Taliban in a bid to bring an end to the war against the insurgents that started in late 2001. Separately, Afghan politicians also have met with the Taliban in Moscow. When the Taliban ruled Afghanistan in the late 1990s, they banned girls' education, forced women to stay home and executed women - sometimes by stoning - for alleged adultery.
But Afghan culture remains starkly segregated and women fear hard-won freedoms could vanish in a rush for a peace deal.
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