UN says its female staffers banned from working in Afghanistan
The United Nations has reportedly asked all staff not to come to the office for 48 hours.
According to a UN spokesperson, the Taliban have issued an order banning Afghan female employees of the UN staff from working anywhere in Afghanistan.
Stéphane Dujarric said this is the latest in a “disturbing trend” undermining aid agencies’ ability to work in Afghanistan, where some 23 million people, more than half of the country’s population, are in need of assistance.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres would view a ban on Afghan women from working for the United Nations in their country as “unacceptable and, frankly, unthinkable,” he said.
Spokesmen for the Taliban government and the Afghan Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters news agency.
Two UN sources told Reuters that concerns over enforcement of the ban prompted the United Nations to ask all staff not to come to the office for 48 hours.
“We are still investigating how this development would affect our operations in the country and we expect to have more meetings with the de facto authorities in Kabul tomorrow. We’re trying to get clarity,’ Dujarric said. “We don’t have anything on paper at the moment.”
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) earlier on Tuesday expressed its concern that female workers in the eastern province of Nangarhar will no longer be allowed to come to work.
“National UN personnel [male and female] will not come to UN offices for 48 hours due to the threat of enforcing a ban on female national staff in light of enforcement starting today in Jalalabad,” a senior UN official told Reuters, referring to the capital city of Nangarhar .
Friday and Saturday are normally weekend days at UN offices in Afghanistan, meaning staff would not return until Sunday at the earliest.
The Taliban government, which took power when US-led forces withdrew from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, says it respects women’s rights in line with its interpretation of Islamic law.
Since the overthrow of the Western-backed government in Kabul, the Taliban have tightened controls on women’s access to public life, including banning women from university and closing most girls’ schools.
In December, Taliban authorities banned most women NGO workers, which aid workers say has made it more difficult to reach female beneficiaries and could lead donors to hold back on funding.