- UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said a ban by Taliban authorities on Afghan women working for the UN was ‘an intolerable violation of the most basic human rights”
- Some 3,300 Afghan staff, including 400 women, work for the UN, which instructed them to not to report to their offices until further notice due to security concerns
- After the Taliban announced the ban this week, UN officials in Kabul met with the Acting Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi
NEW YORK CITY, New York: United Nations (UN) secretary-general Antonio Guterres has said that a ban by Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities on Afghan women working for the UN was ‘an intolerable violation of the most basic human rights” that should be immediately revoked.
Some 3,300 Afghan staff, including 400 women, work for the UN, which instructed them to not to report to their offices until further notice due to security concerns.
“Banning Afghan women from working with the U.N. in Afghanistan is an intolerable violation of the most basic human rights,” Guterres tweeted.
The Taliban administration has not responded to requests for comment.
After the Taliban announced the ban this week, UN officials in Kabul met with the Acting Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s deputy envoy and humanitarian aid coordinator in Afghanistan, said Muttaqi told them the ban was an expansion of an order issued in December that prohibited Afghan women from working for aid groups.
This week, Alakbarov told reporters in New York via video, “The people of Afghanistan cannot be abandoned.”
After traveling to Afghanistan in January to meet with Taliban authorities, Amina Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, told reporters this week that the UN’s female Afghan staff would continue to be paid and would not be replaced by men.
“On a personal note, I am outraged. I am terribly troubled by the fact that in the month of Ramadan, what we get from the Taliban is a strike against the teachings and the belief of Islam,” Mohammed said.
In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross said it was unsure if it would be affected by the ban, but it was “worried about the catastrophic consequences” for the Afghan people.
