By Mohammad Amin Pacha in TOLOnews, April 05, 2023 at 11:24 PM
The UN instructed its female Afghan staff to stay at home for the next two days after the Islamic Emirate signaled that they would enforce a ban on Afghan women working for the UN agencies.
Reuters reported that the UN told some 3,300 Afghan staff not to come to work in Afghanistan for the next two days.
UN officials in Afghanistan “received word of an order by the de facto authorities that bans female national staff members of the United Nations from working,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York.
He said that the women are the backbone of our humanitarian operations there.
The Islamic Emirate’s spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahid, said that the issue of banning female UN staff happened in Nangarhar due to some problems and is under investigation. He said that there is no problem with the work of UN employees in other areas.
“There could be a problem in Nangarhar regarding this issue and we are investigating what happened there. In other areas, their employees are working at their office; of course in line with Sharia law,” he said.
Political analysts and women’s rights activists said that women are essential in the delivery of humanitarian aid in the country.
“The hardness and inflexibility of the Taliban regarding the work and activities of women in general as well as toward UN staff further isolates Afghanistan and causes suffering for the people of Afghanistan,” said Sayed Jawad Sijadi, a university instructor.
“The Taliban, UN and other countries should not make the people of Afghanistan a pawn for their political goals,” said Suraya Paikan, a women’s rights activist..
According to the UN spokesman, there are almost 4,000 UN staff members, and “about 3,300” are national staff.
https://tolonews.com/afghanistan-182842
