Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram on Saturday clarified his controversial remarks regarding Pakhtun culture after heavy backlash from Pakhtuns and human rights activists in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.
After the statements made by Ambassador Akram received hefty criticism, he clarified that the intentions were not to target anyone and his remarks were misunderstood.
In response to the queries of a media outlet Mr Akram said he “regrets if his remarks were misunderstood or hurt anyone’s feelings. There was no disrespect meant to Pashtun culture which is highly progressive and deserves full respect across the world”.
Mr Akram made the controversial comments during a briefing at the UN in New York on Wednesday, in which the ambassador linked the Taliban government’s restrictions on women with the Pakhtun culture.
He stated that, “The restrictions that have been put by the Afghan interim government, flow not so much from a religious perspective as from a peculiar cultural perspective of the Pashtun culture, which requires women to be kept at home. And this is a peculiar, distinctive cultural reality of Afghanistan which has not changed for hundreds of years.”
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A spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Islamabad had sought details of the ambassador’s statement and the context in which it might have been made.