KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The United Nations has renewed its call for the Taliban to lift all restrictions on women and girls, urging the international community to take concrete steps to support their rights.
Marking International Women’s Day, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) condemned the Taliban’s policies, describing them as a violation of human rights and a significant obstacle to the country’s progress.
This year’s theme for International Women’s Day, “For ALL Women and Girls: Rights. Equality. Empowerment,” serves as a stark reminder of the reality in Afghanistan, UNAMA said, where women and girls face systematic exclusion from their fundamental rights.
Roza Otunbayeva, head of UNAMA and the UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan, praised Afghan women for their resilience. “Despite extraordinary challenges, Afghan women continue to lead, build, and support their communities,” she said. “It is essential to restore women’s rights and place them at the center of solutions to both current and emerging challenges.”
Otunbayeva reaffirmed the UN’s commitment to Afghan women and girls, emphasizing that the organization “stands in full solidarity” with them. “We will continue to do everything in our power to invest in their resilience and leadership,” she added, calling Afghan women key to a prosperous and inclusive Afghanistan.
UNAMA also called on UN member states to turn their solidarity into action by amplifying Afghan women’s voices, supporting their leadership, and investing in their future.
Meanwhile, Alison Davidian, head of UN Women in Afghanistan, described the global response to the Taliban’s policies as a test of the world’s commitment to gender equality.
“We cannot accept a future for Afghan women and girls that we would never tolerate anywhere else,” she said. “The international community must stand with Afghan women in these difficult times.”
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women, effectively erasing them from public life. Afghanistan remains the only country in the world where girls are barred from secondary and higher education.
U.N. experts, human rights organizations, and activists have condemned the Taliban’s policies as “gender apartheid,” urging the international community to formally recognize them as crimes against humanity.
The Taliban, however, insists that women’s rights are protected in accordance with Islamic law and Afghan traditions.
In a statement posted on X on International Women’s Day, Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated that the regime “assumes full responsibility for the provision and safeguarding of the rights of Afghan women.”
Mujahid further claimed that women and girls “live in a state of complete physical and psychological security in Afghanistan.”
“No individual possesses the authority to infringe upon women’s rights or regard them with disdain,” Mujahid said, adding that women’s rights must be viewed within the “specific context” of an Islamic and Afghan society, which he argued is “distinct from Western societies and their cultural paradigms.”
