Image copyright Getty Images
The Taliban banned women working for the United Nations from working in humanitarian organizations
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously condemned the Taliban, who control Afghanistan, for preventing Afghan women from working at the United Nations.
A Security Council resolution drafted by the United Arab Emirates and Japan on Thursday called the ban “unprecedented in the history of the United Nations” and emphasized the “vital role of women in Afghan society”. .”
The Taliban’s latest decision follows its decision to ban women from humanitarian organizations in December last year.
Since the Taliban seized power and toppled the Western-backed government in 2021, women have been subjected to a number of measures, including barring them from attending universities, and closing girls’ secondary schools.
The Taliban say they respect women’s rights, but only in accordance with a strict interpretation of Islamic law. Taliban officials said the decision regarding female aid workers was an “internal matter”.
UAE Ambassador Lana Nusaye confirmed that more than 90 countries from Afghanistan’s immediate neighbors or from the Islamic world around the world support the resolution.
“This … support makes our core message even more important today,” he said in his address to the House. “The world will not stop when women are erased from society in Afghanistan.”
Thursday’s Security Council vote comes days before an international meeting on Afghanistan in Doha on May 1-2.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is to meet behind closed doors with Afghan special envoys from various countries to work on a coordinated approach to dealing with the Taliban.
“We will not stand for the Taliban’s oppression of women and girls,” Robert Wood, the US deputy ambassador to the UN, told the assembly. “These results are indefensible. They cannot be seen anywhere else in the world.”
“The Taliban’s fatwas are causing irreparable damage to Afghanistan,” Wood asserted.
The Security Council resolution also recognizes the need to address the significant challenges facing the Afghan economy, including the use of assets owned by the Central Bank of Afghanistan for the benefit of the Afghan people.
The United States froze billions in United States bank reserves, then transferred half of the money to a trust fund in Switzerland overseen by American, Swiss and Afghan trustees.
“Today we have seen only the transfer of assets from one account to another, but not a single penny has been returned to the Afghan people,” China’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Geng Shuang, told the Security Council.
Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vasily Nebenzia, also called for the return of assets of the Afghan central bank.
