The UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has urged the de facto leadership of that country to "take immediate steps to end violence against women and the broader deterioration of women's rights as a vital part of efforts to establish a meaningful and sustainable peace."
The November 25 appeal comes on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and with indications that the Taliban-led government in Afghanistan is increasing strictures on women 15 months after it swept to power as U.S.-backed international troops withdrew and the UN-backed government in Kabul fled.
"Since the summer of 2021, women in Afghanistan have had many of their most fundamental rights restricted or rescinded in a country that has one of the highest rates of violence against women globally," UNAMA said in a statement that also announced a global "16 Days Of Activism" campaign against gender-based violence.
It said Afghan women and girls have also suffered from "a marked deterioration in access to coordinated, comprehensive, and quality services for survivors of gender-based violence."
But the demand for such help "is higher than ever before," UNAMA said.
The UN secretary-general’s special representative for Afghanistan and UNAMA head, former Kyrgyz President Roza Otunbaeva, called the protection of women's rights "a crucial factor for stability, prosperity, and any lasting peace in Afghanistan."
In an increasingly desperate plea for their rights, more than a dozen Afghan women protested briefly in Kabul on November 24 ahead of the UN day to combat violence against women.
WATCH: A group of female protesters marched in the Afghan capital, Kabul, on November 24 to mark the upcoming International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.
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Afghan Women Take To Kabul Streets
The hard-line fundamentalist Taliban government has not been recognized by any country, and its alienation from international organizations and financial structures has compounded an already disastrous humanitarian and rights situation.
The U.S.-led troop pullout in 2021 followed an agreement spearheaded a year earlier under U.S. President Donald Trump to extract Americans and their allies from a two-decade war after the invasion that followed 9/11.
The European Parliament approved a resolution on November 24 challenging the Taliban to allow a return for women and girls to public life including the right to education if it wants to engage with the world.