UN demands Taliban revoke ban on women staff

KABUL: Top UN officials warned Wednesday that a Taliban government ban on Afghan women working for its mission in the country would violate the world body’s charter, and demanded it be revoked.

The United Nations also announced it had instructed all its Afghan staff, men and women, not to report to the office after the ban was confirmed.

Under their austere interpretation of Islam, Taliban authorities have imposed a slew of restrictions on Afghan women since seizing power in 2021, including banning them from higher education and many government jobs.

The increasing curbs are reminiscent of the Taliban’s first government between 1996 and 2001, when the UN said they were responsible for repeated human rights violations — particularly against girls and women.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres demanded the ban be “immediately revoked”.

“This is a violation of the inalienable fundamental human rights of women,” spokesman Stephane Dujarric said in a statement on behalf of Guterres on Wednesday.

The UN said on Tuesday the Taliban government had extended a ban on women working for non-governmental organisations to the world body’s workforce of some 400 Afghan women.

UN humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan Ramiz Alakbarov said “the charter of the United Nations is going to be violated” because of the ban.

“It is absolutely clear that no authority can give instructions to the United Nations… on who should be employed,” he told AFP. “We are not going to make an exception.”

While it is unclear what the effect of a charter violation would be in the long term, the UN ordered all Afghan staff “not to report to the office until further notice”.

The UN Security Council planned to discuss the issue at a closed-door meeting Thursday morning.