The Taliban has implemented the world's most repressive regime for women, the United Nations mission to the country said in a statement to mark International Women's Day on March 8, calling on Afghanistan's rulers to scrap the severe restrictions it imposed on its female population since returning to power.
The UN statement came as dozens of women staged a rare protest in Kabul, demanding more rights.
The radical Islamist group, which came back to power in the war-wracked country in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces pulled out, had initially promised to allow for women’s and minority rights.
However, the Taliban has taken a hard line, further crushing women's rights and restricting freedoms, including imposing a ban on girls' education beyond the sixth grade.
Women were forced to cover themselves, banned from public spaces, and forbidden to work for domestic and foreign NGOs, while traveling or working outside their home is largely restricted.
The International Labor Organization said on March 7 that Afghan women's employment had fallen by 25 percent since the Taliban's return to power.
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"Afghanistan under the Taliban remains the most repressive country in the world regarding women's rights," said Roza Otunbaeva, special representative of the UN secretary-general and head of the UN Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA), adding that the group's actions to stifle women's rights had been "methodical, deliberate, and systematic."
Aid agencies and humanitarian groups estimate that more than half of Afghanistan's 38 million people suffer from hunger, with children being most at risk of malnutrition.
"On International Women's Day, the United Nations in Afghanistan is renewing its call on the country's de facto authorities to halt and reverse harsh restrictions on the fundamental rights of women and girls," UNAMA said in its statement.
"The rights of women and girls must be restored immediately in order to build an inclusive, peaceful and hopeful Afghanistan," it said, adding that the effect of the harsh treatment of women is felt by all Afghans and "will resonate throughout generations."
Zhulia Parsi, one of the protesters in Kabul, told RFE/RL, "In Afghanistan, all women are under severe restrictions, the gates of all universities, schools, recreation centers, and even sports are closed to women. This is why we protested today, to show the world that the rights of all Afghan women are being violated."