UN Expresses ‘Serious Concerns’ After Taliban Bars Women Staff From Working

The Taliban had banned women employed with NGOs from last year. Though women working with the UN were not included in the ban, the world body had raised fears that they could be targeted. 

Female staff members of UN in eastern Afghanistan have been barred from working. (Representational Image)

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New Delhi:  The United Nations has expressed “serious concerns” after its female employees were barred from reporting to work in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Tuesday. As per a report by the Associated Press, female Afghan employees working with the United Nations have been stopped from working by Taliban authorities in eastern Afghanistan, as per the officials of the world body.  

“We remind de facto authorities that United Nations entities cannot operate and deliver life-saving assistance without female staff,” it said in a tweet.

There were no immediate comments from the Taliban and it was not clear whether the ban extended beyond Nangarhar province.

The Taliban had banned women employed with NGOs from last year. Though women working with the UN were not included in the ban, the world body had raised fears that they could be targeted. 

UN spokesman Stéphane Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday that the secretary-general, António Guterres, has said that “any such ban would be unacceptable and frankly, inconceivable”.

He also said UN officials were told through “various conduits” that the ban applied to the whole country.

“We’re still looking into how this development would affect our operations in the country, and we are expected to have more meetings with the de facto authorities tomorrow in Kabul in which we’re trying to seek some clarity.”

Dujarric said female employees were essential to executing life-saving UN operations on the ground, saying that out of a population of about 40 million people, the organisation was “trying to reach 23 million men, women and children with humanitarian aid”.

Despite promising a more moderate ruling than the previous stint in power after Taliban captured Afghanistan, it has rather imposed harsh measures. 

Girls have been banned from education beyound grade six and women are barred from studying, working, travelling without a male companion and even going to parks. Women must also cover themselves from head to toe.