Taliban government blocks female Afghan staffers from working: UN

The Taliban have extended a ban on women working for NGOs to the United Nations' mission throughout the country, a UN spokesman announced, calling such an order "unacceptable."

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) had said earlier on Tuesday that UN women employees had been blocked from work in eastern Nangarhar province.

"UNAMA received word of an order by the de facto authorities that bans female national staff members of the United Nations from working," spokesman for the secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters, adding that the UN had heard "from various conduits that this applies to the whole country."

The UN had so far been exempt from a December Taliban order for all foreign and domestic NGOs to stop women personnel working across the crisis-stricken nation.

Dujarric said no written order had yet been received, but that the UN was to hold meetings with the Taliban on Wednesday in Kabul to "seek some clarity."

READ MORE: Afghan girls' education advocate Matiullah Wesa arrested in Kabul: UN

'Need women'

"It's very difficult to imagine how we deliver humanitarian aid without our female staff," Dujarric said, noting that "obviously, given the society and the culture, you need women to deliver aid to women."

After the ban was announced last year, several NGOs suspended their entire operations in protest, piling further misery on Afghanistan's 38 million citizens, half of whom are facing hunger, according to aid agencies.

Days of discussions had led to an agreement that women working in the health aid sector would be exempt from the decree, and UN staff, including those in the aid sector, were never beholden to the ban.

Last month, however, UNAMA chief Roza Otunbayeva told the UN Security Council she feared the Taliban government could extend the ban imposed on women working for NGOs to the UN's women staff.

The agency earlier on Tuesday expressed "serious concern that female national UN staff have been prevented from reporting to work in Nangarhar province," in a tweet.

"We remind de facto authorities that United Nations entities cannot operate and deliver life-saving assistance without female staff," it added.

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during its previous stint in power, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since seizing power in 2021 as US and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war.

Girls are banned from education beyond sixth grade. Women are barred from working, studying, traveling without a male companion, and even going to parks. Women must also cover themselves from head to toe.

Afghan women were also barred from working at national and international non-governmental organizations, disrupting the delivery of humanitarian aid.

Women working for the UN were not included in the NGO ban, but the UN raised fears that women working for the UN could be targeted.

READ MORE: UN Security Council extends Afghan mission mandate by one year