UNO: A UN spokesman reported on Tuesday that the Taliban have made it illegal for women to work for NGOs throughout the entire country. He described this as "unacceptable."
Early in the day, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) reported that UN women workers had been prevented from going to work in the eastern Nangarhar province.
According to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the secretary-general, "UNAMA received word of an order by the de facto authorities that bans female national staff members of the United Nations from working," and "from various conduits that this applies to the entire country."
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A Taliban directive issued in December ordering all domestic and foreign NGOs to stop employing women staff members in the country's crisis-ridden country did not apply to the UN up until that point.
Dujarric stated that the UN would meet with the Taliban on Wednesday in Kabul to "seek some clarity," but that no written order had yet been received. Dujarric stated that "any such ban would be unacceptable and frankly, inconceivable" for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He continued, "This is the most recent in a troubling trend that undermines the capacity of aid organisations to reach those most in need." In order for the UN to deliver lifesaving aid, he said, "female staff members are essential." He pointed out that the UN is attempting to provide humanitarian aid to 23 million people in the nation.
According to UN statistics, the majority of the 600 female staff members working in Afghanistan—roughly 400 Afghan women—are employed by the UN. The 3,900-person UN staff in Afghanistan includes about 3,300 Afghans.
Dujarric noted that "it's very hard to imagine how we deliver humanitarian aid without our female staff," adding that "it's obviously necessary to have women deliver aid to women given the society and the culture." For on-the-ground aid operations in Afghanistan, women workers are essential, especially in identifying other women in need.
Many NGOs shut down completely after the ban was announced last year in protest, adding to the suffering of Afghanistan's 38 million people, half of whom, according to aid organisations, are hungry.
After several days of negotiations, it was decided that women employed in the health aid sector would not be subject to the decree and that all UN employees, including those in the aid sector, were not subject to the ban.
Roza Otunbayeva, the head of UNAMA, however, expressed her concern to the UN Security Council last month that the Taliban government might include the UN's female staff in its ban on women working for NGOs.
In a tweet earlier on Tuesday, the organisation stated that it was "seriously concerned" that "female national UN staff have been prevented from reporting to work in Nangarhar province." We also remind de facto authorities that without female staff, United Nations entities cannot function and cannot provide life-saving assistance.
Following the UNAMA tweet, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban government's spokesman, told AFP he was looking for information in Nangarhar. Following the withdrawal of US and NATO troops in August 2021, the Taliban government retook control and imposed a strict interpretation of Islam.
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Authorities have forbidden teenage girls from attending secondary school, forced women out of many government positions, prohibited them from travelling alone, and instructed them to cover up outside the home—ideally with a burqa.
Additionally, women have been denied access to universities as well as to gardens and parks. In a recent speech in Geneva, UN Special Rapporteur Richard Bennett on Human Rights in Afghanistan stated that the Taliban government's policy "may amount to the crime of gender persecution."