UN Chief Urges Taliban to Lift Restrictions on Afghan Women
UN Secretary-General's Call for Change
A file image of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (Photo: @ians_india/X)
New York, Sep 7: Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, has voiced serious concerns regarding the ongoing discriminatory practices enforced by the Taliban against Afghan women and girls. He has reiterated the urgent need to lift the ban preventing Afghan women from working with the UN and to guarantee their safe access to UN facilities across Afghanistan.
Guterres emphasized that the limitations on women's participation in public life, education, and various employment sectors violate their basic rights and significantly hinder Afghanistan's economic progress, stability, and reintegration into the global community.
This statement coincides with the one-year anniversary of the Taliban's prohibition on Afghan women accessing UN premises. The UN leader urged the Taliban to promptly revoke this ban and ensure that women can safely access UN locations.
He stated, "These restrictions contradict international law, including the UN Charter, and hinder the organization's ability to fulfill its mission and provide essential aid to the Afghan populace during a time of heightened need."
Guterres added, "Unrestricted access for all UN personnel to their workplaces is vital for us to meet our obligations and assist vulnerable groups, particularly women and girls, in line with cultural norms. It is crucial that women are allowed to provide humanitarian aid and essential services to their counterparts."
In his remarks, Guterres also called for the Taliban to remove all barriers imposed on Afghan women and girls, advocating for their rights to participate fully and equally in all facets of Afghan society.
Recently, UN experts highlighted that gender-based repression has intensified under Taliban governance, with increasing restrictions affecting the Afghan populace, especially women and girls.
“Five years may seem brief in a nation's timeline, but it is significant in a child's life. A generation of girls has been denied secondary education. A girl who was in sixth grade when the ban was enacted is now approaching adulthood without having attended school,” the experts noted.
They cited an Afghan girl expressing, "It has been five years since I lost my education. It is profoundly disheartening to feel stagnant, unable to progress beyond where I was five years ago."
The experts reiterated that the Taliban's deliberate and targeted deprivation of fundamental rights based on gender constitutes a "crime against humanity of persecution."
As this oppression is part of a systematic approach to gender-based discrimination, the experts characterized it as "gender apartheid" and urged the international community to support the recognition of "gender apartheid as a distinct crime against humanity."
According to the experts, the Taliban have continued to enforce oppressive measures against the Afghan population, including a court decree that allows violence against women as long as it does not result in broken bones or visible bruises. They also noted another decree regarding spousal separation that implicitly endorses child marriage and complicates the ability of women and girls to escape abusive or forced marriages, while also discriminating against religious minorities.