Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi appeared to use women’s rights as a bargaining chip to gain sanctions relief, telling a United Nations official that Taliban leaders currently saw little incentive to shift course.

“Afghanistan has been sanctioned, the banking system has been sanctioned, and our businessmen are facing serious difficulties. They can’t even transfer money abroad to import food and fuel,” Muttaqi told UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed in Kabul Wednesday, while discussing women’s rights. “What action has the UN taken that I can pass on to my leaders and people?”

The Taliban recently banned local female staff members of international non-governmental organizations from working and women from attending universities until further notice. It was the latest curb on women’s rights and freedoms since the group retook control of the country.

Despite promises to the contrary, the militant group has rolled back all advances in women’s freedom that occurred over the last two decades, taking the country back to their repressive rule in the late 90s. Women have been barred from public parks and gyms and forbidden to travel long distances without a male escort.

Moderates and hardliners within the Taliban have clashed over the issue.

Mohammed visited Kabul after a series of meetings in Turkey, Qatar, and Pakistan with the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, diplomats and the Afghan diaspora to discuss the situation in the country after the militant group seized power last year. A recording of her conversation with Muttaqi was released by a spokesman of the ministry.

The Afghan economy has been in a downward spiral since the group’s return. Financial aid, that made up the bulk of the nation’s finances, has dried up. Also, the US froze $7 billion of its foreign reserves. Half of that amount was later transferred to the four-member trust fund, known as the “Fund for the Afghan People,” and the rest was earmarked to compensate victims of the 9/11 attacks.

The UN has warned that more than half of Afghanistan’s population is facing acute hunger as a harsh winter sets in.