The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has reiterated that women’s rights cannot be subject to negotiation, and the UN Migration (IOM) has called for the reversal of the Taliban’s bans. “All women and girls have the right to live with dignity and respect,” stated UNAMA on its official Facebook page.
UNAMA said the Taliban had deprived women and girls in Afghanistan of most of their basic rights, particularly the right to education and work.
In September 2021, the Taliban prohibited Afghan girls from attending secondary schools throughout the country. In December 2022, the group extended the ban to include women and girls from pursuing higher education at universities and from working with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).
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Along with the aforementioned restrictions, the Taliban has also barred women and girls from visiting amusement parks and public baths, as well as traveling without a mahram.
The UN Migration (IOM) released a video on Thursday, in which it declared that the Taliban’s ban on female aid workers constituted an attack on the human rights of Afghan women and girls. The IOM went on to say that providing services to female returnees from Afghanistan was made difficult in the absence of female aid workers.
“The bans must be reversed,” the UN agency demanded.
Despite repeated appeals from numerous countries, human rights organizations, UN agencies, and Secretary-General Guterres himself, the Taliban leadership has refused to reverse its bans on women’s education and work, and has continued to impose restrictions on women and girls..
