In view of the dramatic undermining of women’s rights in Afghanistan, the UN Security Council must act urgently. At its closed session on Afghanistan today, the Council should focus on how to reverse the Taliban’s ban on women and girls’ access to work, education, sports and public facilities.
“There is an urgent need for the UN Security Council to stop the drastic decline in the rights of women and girls in this country. The world looks on as the Taliban systematically decimate women’s rights through numerous discriminatory restrictions,” said Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for South Asia. “The UN Security Council must not only immediately lift the Taliban’s restrictions on women and girls request. He must also demand an end to the crackdown on those who dare to protest the decline of women’s rights in Afghanistan.”
Worsening of the humanitarian crisis
The Taliban’s December 24, 2022 decision to ban women from working with NGOs has pushed the country into a humanitarian crisis. The ban has already contributed to a rise in acute food insecurity and malnutrition, while women’s access to basic rights, such as health and education, has diminished. Afghan women and girls are increasingly marginalized from public life and will be hit hardest by poverty, hunger and disease in the coming months as the humanitarian catastrophe deepens.
The NGO-run aid sector is on the brink of collapse. At least three major international NGOs – CARE, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Save the Children – have suspended operations in the country because they cannot run their programs without female staff. On December 28, the United Nations also halted several programs in the country. Currently, humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, including a World Bank fund of over $1 billion, is channeled through UN agencies and partner organizations.
“It’s like the Taliban are deliberately driving the country into starvation. Their discriminatory, misogynistic policies are leading to shocking levels of food insecurity and making international aid delivery almost impossible.
Yamini Mishra, Amnesty International’s Regional Director for South Asia
ACCESS TO EDUCATION IS UNDERMINING
By banning NGOs from working with women, female students will also be denied access to educational institutions in individual communities. In the pre-Taliban era, such programs were the only way for around 3.7 million children, 60 percent of whom were girls, to go to school at all. The teachers were primarily women, who the Taliban now regard as undesirable NGO workers. The restrictions also affect public education programs run by women NGO workers, which are essential for educating people about personal hygiene, family nutrition and health.
DRAMATIC REVIEW
On December 24, 2022, the Taliban ordered all domestic and foreign NGOs not to hire female staff. Four days earlier, they forced all universities to stop accepting female students until further notice. In November 2022, women were barred from parks and gymnasiums across the country. In March 2022, all secondary schools for girls were closed.
Since taking control of the country in August 2021, the Taliban have been systematically violating the rights of women and girls to education, work and freedom of movement. They have stopped providing protection and support to people fleeing domestic violence. They have prosecuted and imprisoned women and girls for minor violations of discriminatory regulations; and they have contributed to the sharp increase in child and forced marriages in Afghanistan.
Amnesty International is calling on the de facto Taliban authorities to immediately allow women and girls to return to secondary and higher education and to give women the opportunity to work and have independent access to public buildings. The international community must also call on the Taliban to reverse their restrictive policies, allow women to return to NGO employment, and ensure women’s full civil rights throughout the country.
The original article can be visited here
