The window of opportunity to negotiate for the rights of Afghan women is rapidly closing, Amnesty International warned on Friday.

Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s South Asia director, said that women and girls in Afghanistan have almost disappeared from the public life since the Islamic Emirate seized power seven months ago.

 “It’s crucial that during negotiations and discussions with the Taliban (IEA), women and girls’ rights are made a non-negotiable issue,” Yamini said. “This may well be the last chance we have to ensure that half the population are not permanently vanished.”

Yamini said that the failure up until now to leverage decades of support to secure respect for women’s rights in Afghanistan is “unacceptable.”

“The international community must use every available lever to pressure the Taliban authorities to respect women and girls’ rights including their rights to education, work and equal participation in political and public life,” she said.

“Once the Taliban (IEA) can access international aid and if formally recognized by the world – there will be little scope to negotiate for girls’ access to education and respect for all other rights of women and girls.  Failure to do so will be a catastrophe we must avoid at all costs, or the next generation of Afghan girls will never forgive us,” Yamini said.

Last month, IEA decided against opening schools to girls above the sixth grade, reneging on a previous promise. The decision was condemned by foreign governments and international rights organizations.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Saturday called the move “an unjustifiable violation of equal rights that damages the entire country.”

“Support for the rights of Afghan women & girls is support that lifts children out of hunger & communities out of poverty,” Guterres said on Twitter.

IEA has said that the issue of schools is a domestic issue of Afghanistan and any pressure from the outside on the matter would be considered as an interference in the internal affairs of the country.