Bisola David
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan will speak with Taliban representatives in Kabul on Wednesday “to seek clarity” regarding a new government decree that prohibits women from working for the international organization throughout the nation.
Th Punch reported that Afghan women have been subject to a number of limitations since the Taliban took control in August 2021, including being barred from numerous government jobs and higher education.
The tightening limitations are reminiscent of the Taliban’s initial administration, which ruled from 1996 to 2001 and was accused by the UN of repeatedly violating human rights, notably those of girls and women.
The Taliban leadership reportedly expanded its prohibition on women working for non-governmental organizations to the entire world on Tuesday, according to the UN.
According to a spokesperson for the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, “UNAMA received word of an order by the de facto authorities that prevents female national staff members of the United Nations from working,” and “through several sources that this extends to the entire country.”
Dujarric stated that the UN would meet with the Taliban on Wednesday in Kabul to “get some clarity,” but that no written order has yet been received.
Dujarric stated that “any such prohibition would be inappropriate and simply, unimaginable” for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
He continued, “This is the most recent instance in a troubling pattern eroding the capacity of humanitarian organizations to reach people most in need.”
He noted that the UN is trying to reach 23 million people in Afghanistan with humanitarian supplies, saying that “female staff workers are crucial for the United Nations to offer lifesaving assistance.”
“Women employees identify women beneficiaries; that is how it works across agencies, and the expansion of this ban to UN women staff would further impair that work,” he told AFP on condition of anonymity.
According to UN statistics, the majority of the 600 female staff members working in Afghanistan are Afghan women, of whom the UN employs about 400. The 3,900-person UN staff in Afghanistan includes roughly 3,300 Afghans.
Dujarric noted that “it is really difficult to conceive how we would deliver humanitarian help without our female workers,” adding that “it is definitely necessary to have women deliver aid to women given the community and the culture.”
Many NGOs ceased their whole operations in protest after the ban was imposed last year, adding to the suffering of Afghanistan’s 38 million people, half of whom, according to humanitarian organizations, are hungry.
After several days of negotiations, it was decided to exempt women employed in the health aid industry from the decree, and UN staff, including those in the aid sector, were never beholden to the ban.
The head of UNAMA, Roza Otunbayeva, however, expressed her concern to the UN Security Council last month that the Taliban regime would include the UN’s female personnel in its prohibition on women working for NGOs.
The organization earlier on Tuesday tweeted its “deep concern over the fact that female national UN personnel had been banned from reporting to work in the province of Nangarhar.”
A spokesman for the Taliban leadership, Zabihullah Mujahid, told AFP that he was looking for information on the situation in Nangarhar.
After regaining control, the Taliban administration has implemented a strict interpretation of Islam.
Authorities have prohibited teenage girls from attending secondary schools, forced women out of numerous government positions, prohibited them from traveling without a male relative, and instructed them to cover themselves outside the home, preferably with a burqa.
Moreover, women are not permitted in parks or gardens and are not allowed in institutions.
At 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.”
