Condemnation of restrictions on women by Taliban

A statement adopted unanimously by the 15-member UN Security Council said Afghanistan’s ban on girls and women attending high schools and universities “signals an increasing erosion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” “

The Security Council said the sanctions would also have a significant and immediate impact on groups engaged in humanitarian aid activities in the country, including United Nations organizations.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers banned women from working in non-governmental organizations on Saturday. He justified his action by saying that some women were not following the rules of Islamic Shariah dress. The Taliban have already suspended women’s education in universities and girls’ education in secondary schools.

The Taliban have barred women from most jobs and ordered women to wear full Islamic dress in public. Women are also banned from going to parks and gyms. “These sanctions are contrary to the Taliban’s promises to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community,” the Security Council said in a statement.

The Security Council also pledged to continue its full support to the United Nations Political Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA). Four major global aid groups, which provide humanitarian aid to millions of Afghans, said on Sunday they were suspending operations because they were unable to run their programs without female staff.

Earlier, the head of the UN Human Rights Mission warned that such policies would have “terrible” consequences. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres deplored the Taliban’s ban on women and aid organizations, writing in a tweet that “these are unjustifiable human rights violations and must be ended.”

“The measures to exclude and silence women and girls are a huge blow to the capabilities of the Afghan people,” he added.

“No country can develop socially and economically, let alone survive, by imprisoning half of its population,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk said in a statement.

“These unacceptable restrictions on women and girls will not only add to the suffering of all Afghan citizens but, I fear, threaten Afghanistan’s borders,” he added. He said that such policies threaten the stability of the Afghan society.