Biden: 'Military force' not the way to protect women's rights

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said in an interview that aired Thursday that war is not the answer to growing fears for the human rights of women in Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover.

"The idea that we're able to deal with the rights of women around the world by military force is not rational," Biden said in the ABC News interview, his first since the Taliban victory triggered a frantic final US withdrawal.

Referring to the Uighur ethnic minority in China and other areas of the world facing extreme human rights abuses, Biden said "the way to deal with that is not with a military invasion."

"There are a lot of places where women are being subjugated," he said. "The way to deal with that is putting economic, diplomatic and international pressure on them to change their behavior."

Biden told ABC that many women were trying to leave Afghanistan through the US evacuation at Kabul's airport.

The president said he told advisors to "get them out, get their families out."

"As many as we can get out we should," he said.