The United Nations has stated it’s unable to accept a decision by the Taliban to prevent female staff members from Afghanistan from working for the organization.
The United Nations has stated it’s unable to support a decision by the Taliban to exclude Afghan female members of staff from serving at the agency. The UN has referred to this decision as an “unparalleled” assault on the rights of women.
The announcement came just after the United Nations stated that it was notified by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban that women of Afghanistan would be barred from working for the international organization going forward. The statement made on Wednesday came just after the announcement. This announcement was made after the United Nations mission in the nation voiced its worry over the fact that all female staff members were prohibited from going to work in the eastern province of Nangarhar.
António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, issued a demand that the prohibition be “immediately repealed.”
On Wednesday, the spokesman for the United Nations, Stephane Dujarric, released an announcement on the order of Guterres in which he called this a denial of the inherent basic women’s human rights.
The Taliban haven’t yet made any public statements or comments about the ban, nor have they issued a statement.
According to the statement released by the United Nations, numerous female UN country staff members have already been subjected to limitations on their travels, including incarceration, intimidation, and harassment.
According to the statement, the United Nations has ordered all of its country workers, including both men and women, to refrain from reporting to the workplace till further notice.
Since taking control of Afghanistan in 2021, as US and NATO forces were pulling out of the country after 2 decades of conflict in Afghanistan, the Taliban have levied draconian measures, despite making promises made initially of a rule that was less authoritarian than the party’s previous time in power. This is despite the fact that the Taliban had previously held power in Afghanistan.
Females are not allowed to continue their education past the sixth grade. There are restrictions placed on women’s access to the workforce, education, travel without a male partner, and public parks. Ladies are required to cover themselves completely from head to toe as well.
There was already a ban in place that prevented Afghan women from working for international and national non-governmental companies, which caused delays in the distribution of humanitarian supplies. Nonetheless, working for the United Nations was not included in the ban until recently.
This week saw a change in that. On Wednesday, the United Nations mission in Afghanistan issued a statement stating that pursuant to an order issued by the Taliban, no woman from Afghanistan  is allowed to work for the United Nations in Afghanistan and also that “this measure would be enforced properly.”
According to the statement, the restriction violates the norms of international law, making it inadmissible for consideration by the United Nations.
Roza Otunbayeva, the special representative of the secretary-general for Afghanistan, is currently communicating with Taliban leadership in order to communicate the protest of the United Nations and to urge an immediate revocation of the decision. The United Nations (UN) has stated that it is coordinating with its member countries, humanitarian partners, and donor communities.
According to Otunbayeva, no other dictatorship in the background of the United Nations has ever attempted to stop women from serving the organization simply due to being women. This is a first for the United Nations. This judgment constitutes an attack on women as well as an assault on the fundamental ideals that underpin the United Nations and international law.
The United Nations has around 3,900 employees working in Afghanistan, with about 600 international and 3,300 Afghan employees, according to Stephane Dujarric, a spokesman for the United Nations. In addition, there are 600 women who are native to Afghanistan and 200 women who are native to other nations.
Otunbayeva served the Kyrgyz Republic as both its president and its foreign minister in the past. She was selected for the position by the secretary-general of the United Nations in consultation with the Security Council. On Tuesday, a spokesman for the United Nations stated that there hadn’t been any action taken by the Taliban about the top leaders of the UN.
The international community has voiced its strong disapproval of the restrictions imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, particularly the restrictions on learning and the operation of non-governmental organizations (NGOs). However, the Taliban have shown no indications of backing down, stating that the restrictions are only temporary bans in place reportedly due to the fact that the women were not covering their heads with a scarf, also known as their hijab, properly and because rules governing gender segregation were not being obeyed.
