UNITED NATIONS (AFP/AP) – The UN has reaffirmed its “commitment to stay” in Afghanistan, in a review assessing its operations in the country in light of the Taliban banning women from working for the world body.
The United Nations announced on April 4 that the Taliban had barred Afghan women from employment in UN offices countrywide, a prohibition that had previously only affected NGOs but spared the UN.
The UN mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA, subsequently launched the review, and concluded Friday that it was committed “to stay and deliver on behalf of the men, women and children of Afghanistan,” Farhan Haq, a spokesman for the secretary-general, told reporters.
It also launched an appeal “to our donors to keep funding this assistance people need,” he said.
In a statement issued from Kabul, UNAMA reiterated its condemnation of the ban, which “seriously undermines our work, including our ability to reach all people in need.”
However “we cannot disengage despite the challenges,” it said, noting that it had conducted “extensive consultations with multiple Afghan stakeholders, including civil society and women’s groups, member states and donors.”
“We continue our focused, principled and constructive engagement with all possible levels of the Taliban de facto authorities to obtain a reversal of this ban and ensure the safety of all UN and aid personnel,” it said.
Meanwhile, a team of UN experts warned on Friday that Taliban restrictions on Afghan women and girls may amount to femicide if they are not reversed.
In a statement released Friday, the UN experts accused Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities of the “most extreme forms of misogyny” and said there could be multiple preventable deaths that may amount to femicide if the restrictions are not reversed.
The restrictive measures and bans imposed by the Taliban have caused international condemnation and outrage, but the Taliban have shown no sign of willingness to lift them.
The UN experts also expressed alarm about widespread mental health issues and accounts of escalating suicides among women and girls.
“As girls and women are prohibited from attending school above grade six, as well as university education, and they can only be provided care by female doctors, unless the restrictions are reversed rapidly, the stage may be set for multiple preventable deaths that could amount to femicide,” said the experts, who shared their preliminary observations from an eight-day trip to Afghanistan.