(CNSNews.com) – The U.N. plans to host a meeting of Afghanistan envoys from around the world at the beginning of May, and the U.N.’s deputy secretary-general says she hopes it will put the international community on the path towards “principled recognition” of the Taliban.

Amina Mohammed told an event at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA) this week that the Taliban “clearly” seeks international recognition, an aspiration that provides the international community with “leverage.”

The comments from the U.N.’s second most senior official came a week after the Taliban informed the world body that it may no longer employ Afghan women. The U.N. called the decision “unlawful under international law, including the U.N. Charter,” and suspended most of its operations in the country while evaluating its position.

In the meantime, all Afghans employed by the U.N., around 600 women and 2,700 men, have been told to work from home.

It was the latest in a series of steps taken by the fundamentalist Sunni militia that seized power in Kabul in mid-2021, in line with its interpretation of Islam and the role of women.

Earlier the Taliban ordered aid agencies that carry out crucial humanitarian aid programs in partnership with the U.N. to stop employing Afghan women. It also suspended university education for female students, banned all girls’ education after sixth grade, and prohibited women from visiting gyms, swimming pools, or public parks.

In her remarks at Princeton, Mohammed – a British-Nigerian diplomat who is a practicing Muslim – spoke of visit to Afghanistan earlier this year.

“Our visit to Afghanistan was first a consultation as to – so now that we have a de facto authority in place that’s running that country, what is the international community prepared to do to bring – if it is at all possible – the Taliban back into the fold?”

As a Muslim woman meeting with the Taliban, she said, she was alert to the conservatism of her interlocutors.

“Many of the Taliban, when you speak to them, sound like some of the northern Nigerian imams and men that we have, when we had Boko Haram and the terrorism that was bred in the northeast of the country that I come from,” she said.

“I could hear the conservatism. I could hear where they were coming from.”

Some were “willing to engage” in discussions on the place of women in Islam, while others were “incredibly hard line.” Overall, she described the Taliban as a collective that doesn’t “break their ranks.”

Mohammed then raised the upcoming meeting of Afghanistan special envoys.

“What we are hoping is that we will gather them now, in another two weeks in the region, and they will have that first meeting of envoys across the board, the region and internationally, with the secretary-general [Antonio Guterres] for the first time.”

“And out of that, we hope that we will find those baby steps to put us back on the pathway to recognition,” she said. “Is it possible? Don’t know.”

The event moderator, SPIA Dean Amaney Jamal asked, “Recognition of?”

“Of the Taliban,” Mohammed replied. “A principled recognition. In other words, there are conditions.”

Jamal asked if she meant a “quid pro quo.”

“Let’s see, let’s see what that does,” Mohammed said. “Because that discussion has to happen. I mean, there are some that believe this can never happen. There are others that say, well, it has to happen.”

“The Taliban clearly want recognition,” she said. “And that’s the leverage we have.”

‘Decided by member-states’

In New York, Guterres spokesman Stephane Dujarric on Wednesday confirmed plans to convene countries’ Afghanistan envoys, in Doha, Qatar on May 1.

Dujarric stressed that the question of recognition of the Taliban was in the hands of U.N. member-states.

He said Mohammed in her remarks “was reaffirming the need for the international community to have a coordinated approach regarding Afghanistan, which includes finding common ground on the longer-term vision of the country and sending a unified message to the de facto authorities on the imperative to ensure that women have their rightful place in Afghan society.”

“She was not, I think, in any way implying that anyone else but member-states have the authority for recognition.”

Asked whether Guterres would use the meeting as an opportunity to call on countries to consider recognizing the Taliban, Dujarric replied, “We’re not the advocates for the de facto authorities. I think that issue will have to be decided by member-states.”

Countries that have appointed special envoys on Afghanistan include the United States (special representative for Afghanistan Thomas West, special envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights Rina Amiri), Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Norway, the European Union, Russia, China, and Pakistan.

In a statement marking the upcoming Eid-al-Fitr (end of Ramadan) holiday, the Taliban’s reclusive leader Hibatullah Akhundzada hailed “significant measures” taken in keeping with the “main goal of our jihad” – the implementation of Islamic law and “the religious and moral reform of the society.”

“Significant reform measures have been taken in culture, education, economy, media and other fields, and the bad intellectual and moral effects of the 20-year occupation are about to finish,” he said.

Apart from two brief references to the widows of “martyrs,” the lengthy statement was silent on the issue of Afghan women and girls.