Taliban ban female UN Afghan employees from working

The ruling Taliban has banned female U.N. Afghan employees from working in the country, U.N. officials said Tuesday.

The UN mission has expressed “grave concern” about the ban on its female staff from reporting to work in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

“We will continue to pursue all avenues to ensure we reach the most vulnerable, especially women and girls,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

He said U.N. officials had learned through “various sources” that the ban applied to the entire country.

A Taliban spokesman had no immediate comment, and the group did not issue a statement.

Although the Taliban initially promised a more moderate rule than during the previous administration, the Taliban have implemented draconian measures since they seized power in 2021 after US and NATO forces pulled out of Afghanistan after 20 years of war.

Girls are barred from education beyond the sixth grade, and women are barred from working, studying, traveling unaccompanied by men, or even going to parks. Women must also cover themselves from head to toe.

Afghan women are also banned from working in national and international NGOs, disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Women working for the United Nations are exempt from the NGO ban, but the UN is concerned that women working for the UN could be targeted.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had said that “any such ban is unacceptable and, frankly, inconceivable,” Dujarric told reporters on Tuesday. “We are still studying how this development will affect the Our operations in the country, we expect to have more meetings with the de facto authorities in Kabul tomorrow, where we will seek some clarification.” Dujarric said female staff are crucial to carrying out life-saving UN operations on the ground. Vital, she said, of a population of about 40 million, “we are trying to reach 23 million men, women and children with humanitarian assistance.” Roza Otunbayeva leads. She was appointed by the Secretary-General in coordination with the UN Security Council. Dujarric said the Taliban had taken no action against senior UN leadership.

The Taliban’s restrictions in Afghanistan, particularly bans on education and the work of NGOs, have drawn strong international condemnation.

But the Taliban showed no signs of backing down, claiming the ban was temporarily suspended, allegedly because women were not wearing the Islamic headscarf, or hijab, properly and were not adhering to gender segregation rules.