The United Nations said on April 5 that it cannot accept a Taliban decision to bar Afghan female staffers from working at the agency, calling it an “unparalleled” violation of women's rights.
The United Nations ordered its 3,300 employees in Afghanistan not to report to their offices for the next two days as the UN mission in the war-torn country seeks further clarification on the Taliban ruling.
Stephane Dujarric, the spokesman for the United Nations, told reporters that the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan would hold talks on April 5 with the Taliban to "seek some clarity" on the issue after receiving word a day earlier that the de facto authorities in Kabul had banned "female national staff members of the United Nations from working."
The Taliban has not commented publicly on the ban.
Since taking power in August 2021 after the exit of international troops, the de facto Taliban rulers have imposed a series of restrictions on Afghan women, including banning them from higher education and many government jobs.
The UN, which has around 400 Afghan women working in its offices in Afghanistan, said it was informed of the ban first in Nangarhar Province, but that it then appeared to be extended countrywide.
"I strongly condemn the prohibition of our Afghan female colleagues from working in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Twitter late on April 4.
"If this measure is not reversed, it will inevitably undermine our ability to deliver life-saving aid to the people who need it," he added.
The UN's humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, Ramiz Alakbarov, said the Taliban's order was a "huge violation" of women's rights.
"Women are absolutely essential to all aspects of our service delivery work in Afghanistan," he said in an interview with AFP.
He also said the UN Charter makes clear that "no authority can give instructions to the United Nations...on who should be employed" and said the UN is "not going to make an exception."
The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan worsened an already major humanitarian crisis and triggered an economic meltdown. Foreign governments immediately cut development funding and imposed sanctions on the new government.
The UN and other nongovernmental organizations have stepped in with assistance, but have been hindered by funding issues and the Taliban's curtailing of activities through measures such as banning women from the workplace.
The Taliban has attracted widespread condemnation for its severe restrictions on women.
Soon after capturing the country, the militants banned girls above the sixth grade from going to school. In December, the hard-line Islamist group banned women from attending university.
They have also launched a brutal crackdown on dissent, with several women's rights activists, including Nargis Sadat, university lecturer Zakaria Osuli, academic Sultan Ali Ziaee, and journalists Khairullah Parhar and Mortaza Behboudi, being detained.