On the second day of a temporary pause in United Nations activities in Afghanistan, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a tweet on Thursday that he is disturbed by another “reprehensible” Taliban decision banning Afghan women from working with the United Nations.
Blinken said the decision will threaten vulnerable Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance.
“We urge the Taliban to put Afghans first and reverse this decision,” he said.
US special envoy for Afghanistan, Thomas West, said in a tweet that the United States stands “with our UN partners in condemning the Taliban’s disturbing decision to ban Afghan women from working with the UN.
He said the decision “is another step backward that will hurt the Afghan people.”
Catherine Russell, UNICEF Executive Director, said the Afghan de facto authority’s decision to ban women Afghan staff from working for the UN, including UNICEF, is unconscionable.
She said it’s another affront to women’s fundamental rights and further undermines life-saving work for children across the country.
“The Afghan de facto authority’s decision to ban women Afghan staff from working for the UN, including UNICEF, is unconscionable. It’s another affront to women’s fundamental rights and further undermines life-saving work for children across the country,” she added.
MSF International in a statement said they “strongly condemn” the decision by the Taliban authorities to prohibit women from working for the UN in Afghanistan.
“This is just another step in their systematic attempt to exclude women from every aspect of public life,” it added.
The United Nations in a press statement on Wednesday condemned “in the strongest terms a decision by the Taliban authorities to prohibit Afghan women from working for the UN in Afghanistan.”
The UN said the decision extends the directive previously announced in December 2022, banning women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan.
The UN says it has been notified by Taliban authorities that, with immediate effect, no Afghan woman is permitted to work for the UN in Afghanistan, and that this measure will be actively enforced.
