Taliban going back on their promises to women’s rights, says U.N

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have contradicted promises on women's rights.

The militant group have gone back on their pledge including ordering women to stay at home, blocking teenage girls from school and holding house-to-house searches for former foes, a United Nations official said on Monday.

High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Afghanistan was in a "new and perilous phase" since the militant Islamist group seized power last month.

Bachelet told the Human Rights Council in Geneva: "In contradiction to assurances that the Taliban would uphold women's rights, over the past three weeks, women have instead been progressively excluded from the public sphere."