After the Taliban forbade Afghan women from working for the international organization, Afghan men who work for the United Nations in Kabul will stay at home in support of their female coworkers, a top UN official has said.
he Taliban's action was described as an "unparalleled violation of human rights" by Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN's deputy special representative, resident, and humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.
It is impossible to reach women without women, he continued, adding that "the lives of Afghan women are at stake."
He also stated that international UN personnel in Afghanistan would remain at their posts.
The Taliban informed the UN on Wednesday that Afghan women were no longer allowed to work for the UN in Afghanistan, and that the restriction would be rigorously enforced.
The UN criticized the decision, stating that the ban was "illegal under international law." The UN ordered all of its staff of Afghan nationality, of both genders, not to report to work until further notice after several female UN employees in the nation reported restrictions on their movements since the Taliban took control in 2021, including harassment and detention.
Roza Otunbayeva, the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Afghanistan, is negotiating at the highest level with the Taliban to "seek an immediate reversal of the order," the statement stated.
The Taliban's action, according to the UN, extended a prior ban that was put into effect in December and forbade Afghan women from working for both domestic and foreign non-governmental organizations.
No other government in the history of the UN has ever attempted to forbid women from working for the Organization only because they are female. According to Otunbayeva, this judgment "represents an assault on women, the core values of the UN, and international law.
The action was criticized by other members of the organization as well, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called it "utterly despicable."
After the Taliban forbade female aid workers in December, at least half a dozen significant international aid organizations temporarily halted their operations in Afghanistan, further depleting the already limited resources available to a nation in desperate need of them.
Prior to the Taliban taking back power, Afghanistan was experiencing a deteriorating humanitarian crisis, aggravating preexisting problems. Following the takeover, the US and its allies cut off international financing and froze roughly $7 billion of the nation's foreign reserves, hurting an economy that was heavily dependent on foreign aid.
According to a March UN assessment, more than 28 million Afghans, or almost two thirds of the country's population, require humanitarian aid. Because food supplies have run out months before the next harvest is expected, many families are now experiencing "catastrophic hunger" and the threat of famine, the report continued.
Since retaking power, the Taliban have enforced a harsh assault on women's rights and freedoms, prohibiting them from working in the majority of industries, entering certain public areas like parks, traveling long distances alone, and other daily restrictions. Nine months after prohibiting girls from returning to secondary schools, it prohibited women from entering universities in December of last year.
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