The United Nations Organization (UN) considered on Wednesday that Afghanistan has become, since the Taliban took power, the most repressive country in the world for women and girls, deprived of many basic rights.
In a statement issued on International Women’s Day, the UN mission in Afghanistan said the country’s new rulers had shown an “almost singular focus on enforcing rules that leave most women and girls trapped in their homes”.
Despite initial promises of a more moderate stance, the Taliban have cracked down since seizing power in August 2021, when US and NATO forces were in the final weeks of their two-decade withdrawal from Afghanistan. of war.
The Taliban banned girls’ education beyond the sixth grade and barred women from accessing public spaces like parks and gyms.
Women are also prohibited from working for national and international non-governmental organizations and are required to walk covered from head to toe.
“Afghanistan, under the rule of the Taliban, remains the most repressive country in the world with regard to women’s rights,” said Roza Otunbayeva, special representative of the UN secretary general and head of mission in Afghanistan.
“It has been harrowing to witness your methodical, deliberate and systematic efforts to remove Afghan women and girls from the public sphere,” he added.
The restrictions, especially the bans on education and work in non-governmental organizations, have drawn strong international condemnation, but the Taliban show no sign of budging, claiming that the bans are temporary suspensions, allegedly because the women did not wear the Islamic headscarf. correctly, or hijab, and denying any gender segregation.
Regarding the ban on university education, the Taliban government alleges that some of the subjects taught did not conform to Afghan and Islamic values.
“Confining half the country’s population to their homes in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian and economic crises is a colossal act of national self-aggression,” Otunbayeva said.
“This will condemn not only women and girls, but all Afghans to poverty and aid dependency for generations to come,” she insisted, adding: “It will further isolate Afghanistan from its own citizens and from the rest of the world.” world”.
The UN mission in Afghanistan also said it has seen an almost constant stream of decrees and measures that discriminate against women since the Taliban took power: the right to travel or work outside the confines of their homes and access to public spaces are largely restricted. Women are equally excluded from all levels of public decision-making.
“The implications of the harm the Taliban are inflicting on their own citizens go beyond women and girls,” said Alison Davidian, UN Special Representative.
No Taliban-led government officials were available to comment on these UN positions.
The UN Security Council will meet today with Otunbayeva and women representatives of Afghan civil society groups.
According to the statement, 11.6 million Afghan women and girls are in need of humanitarian assistance.
However, the Taliban are undermining the international relief effort by banning women from working for non-governmental organizations.
Source: TSF
