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Canadian minister calls Taliban ‘brothers’, later clarifies it as 'cultural reference'
“I want to take this opportunity to speak to our brothers, the Taliban,” Monsef said during the press conference and also called on the militants to ensure the safe and secure passage of any individual in Afghanistan out of the country.
Maryam Monsef, the Canadian minister for women and gender equality and rural economic development, called the Taliban “brothers” during an online press meet, Wednesday, on the government’s response to the situation in Afghanistan. While the minister had reportedly clarified it by calling it a “cultural reference,” the comments had evoked a lot of responses criticising the term used by the minister.
“I want to take this opportunity to speak to our brothers, the Taliban,” Monsef said during the press conference and also called on the militants to ensure the safe and secure passage of any individual in Afghanistan out of the country.
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“We call on you to immediately stop the violence, the genocide, the femicide, the destruction of infrastructure, including heritage buildings. We call on you to return immediately to return to the peace keeping table, to the peace deal that was negotiated and to ensure that women and minority voices are part of that discussion in a meaningful way.” she further said.
A clipping of the video was shared by several people on Twitter and garnered widespread attention on late Wednesday and Thursday (IST).
In her explanation to the criticism against her remarks, Monsef said “There are terrorists taking over my beloved ancestral land,” Canadian news website Globalnews.ca reported. “In terms of the terminology, if you go to masjids across the country, Muslims refer to each other as brothers and sisters, so, you know, rest assured I continue to believe deeply that the Taliban are a terrorist organization,” the website further quoted her as saying earlier on Wednesday.
Notably, Monsef is the first Afghan-Canadian member of parliament in Canada’s history and is also the first Muslim to serve as a federal cabinet minister. The Taliban is one among the several currently listed terrorist entities according to the Canadian government.
