Islamabad: Since the Taliban forbade Afghan women from working for the international organisation, some of the Afghan women who are employed by the UN have been detained, harassed, and subject to movement restrictions, the UN reported on Tuesday.
Early last month, the Taliban government in Afghanistan informed the UN that Afghan women working for the UN mission could no longer report for work.
"This is the most recent in a series of discriminatory - and unlawful - measures implemented by the de facto authorities with the goal of severely restricting women and girls' participation in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan," the UN stated in a report on the state of human rights in the south Asian nation.
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According to the report, Taliban authorities continued to repress dissenting voices this year, particularly those who advocate for the rights of women and girls.
The UN report mentioned the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, the leader of PenPath, a civil society organisation fighting for the reopening of girls' schools, as well as the arrest of four women who were detained in March but released the next day during a protest in Kabul demanding access to education and employment.
It also mentioned the February arrest of women's rights advocate Parisa Mobariz and her brother in the Takhar province of the north.
The report claimed that several other civil society activists who had been arbitrarily detained for protracted periods of time by the Taliban Intelligence service had been released, reportedly without being charged. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, claimed in the report that the actions will have disastrous consequences for Afghanistan's prospects for prosperity, stability, and peace. According to Fiona Frazer, the agency's human rights chief, "UNAMA is concerned about the growing restrictions on civic space throughout Afghanistan."
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The Taliban previously forbade girls from continuing their education past the sixth grade and excluded them from the majority of public and professional life. They forbade Afghan women from working for local and non-governmental organisations in December; at the time, this ban did not apply to UN facilities.
The report also mentioned ongoing extrajudicial killings of people connected to the former administration. According to the report, Taliban forces detained a former police officer on March 5 in southern Kandahar before shooting and killing him.
According to the report, an ex-military official was killed by unidentified armed men in his home during the same month in northern Balkh. The report also stated that "arbitrary arrests and detention of former government officials and members of the Afghanistan National Security and Defence Force occurred throughout February, March, and April."
In a different report made public on Monday, the UN harshly criticised the Taliban for engaging in such acts since seizing control of Afghanistan and urged the government to put an end to them.
According to the report, 274 men, 58 women, and two boys were publicly flogged in Afghanistan in just the previous six months.
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In response, the Taliban's foreign ministry claimed that the vast majority of Afghans adhere to Islamic law and that Afghanistan's laws are therefore based on Islamic principles.
Despite early promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous period in power in the 1990s, the Taliban started enforcing such punishments not long after taking office nearly two years ago.
People found guilty of crimes were subjected to public corporal punishment and executions by government agents from 1996 to 2001, frequently in public places like sports stadiums and busy intersections.