Paris – Days after the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan, the World Cultural Organization UNESCO has called for the protection of the Asian country’s cultural heritage.
UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said after a statement that all necessary precautions should be taken to protect the sites from damage and looting.
In the armed conflict of the past decades, many historical sites and cultural assets in Afghanistan have already been looted and destroyed. In 2001, the militant Islamic Taliban, which was already in power at the time, shocked people by destroying two monumental Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley, which lasted nearly 1,500 years.
In addition to the Bamiyan Valley, there are other important cultural heritage sites in the country, the Paris-based United Nations Organization declared: for example, the Old City of Herat and the historic Tower of Jam in the central province of Ghor. “It is important to preserve and protect these sites for the future of Afghanistan,” it said.
The evening before, the United Nations Organization for Education, Science, Culture and Communication announced that it would do everything possible so that all Afghans could exercise their basic right to education – including girls and women.
