Boris Johnson told to appoint ‘minister for Afghan women’ instead of just ‘talking to other male leaders’

Harriet Harman warns the voices of women bravely ‘standing up for their rights’ will not be heard

Boris Johnson is being urged to appoint a minister to find out the truth about the Taliban directly from Afghan women, instead of simply “talking to other male leaders”.

Harriet Harman, the former Labour leader, raised fears that the voices of women bravely “standing up for their rights” will be missed in the crucial days and weeks to come.

The warning follows a controversial prediction, by the head of Britain’s armed forces, that the Taliban could be more “reasonable” than during their brutal rule in the 1990s.

Others have warned that a clever media campaign to project an image of modernisation masks a fundamentalist Islamist ideology that remains unchanged.

Ms Harman said it was not correct that women in Afghanistan are all “seeking to flee the country” or “just staying behind closed doors”.

“There are some women out there who are standing up for their rights and the rights of other women and we want to be supporting women in whatever choices they make,” she said.

“But, to do that, we’ve got to be listening to the women themselves – rather than having Dominic Raab, the foreign secretary, and the prime minister simply talking to other male leaders, either internationally or in Afghanistan.”

Ms Harman called for “a minister who would be responsible for liaising with women in Afghanistan”, speaking to the BBC.

It would ensure that, in talks about evacuations and humanitarian aid, “women are there in all the discussions”, she said.

“And, as soon as there start to be discussions with the Taliban – which inevitably there will – there must be women as part of that discussion team,” Ms Harman added.

General Sir Nick Carter, the armed forces chief, told the BBC, on Wednesday, that the Taliban should be given “the space to show their credentials”.

“It may be that this Taliban is a different Taliban to the one that people remember from the 1990s,” he argued – suggesting it might be “more reasonable”.

The comments followed Tuesday’s surreal press conference, when the Taliban spokesman took questions from female journalists and claimed the regime is “committed to the rights of women” – but within our framework of sharia”.

Both Mr Johnson and Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, have declined, to echo Sir Nick’s optimistic prediction

The prime minister told MPs that the Taliban would be judged on its “actions, rather than by its words” about an amnesty and protecting women’s rights.