Security council tells Taliban to reverse restrictions on women in Afghanistan

The UN security council has called on the Taliban to reverse policies targeting women and girls in Afghanistan, expressing alarm at the “increasing erosion” of human rights.

The hardline Islamist rulers banned women from working in non-governmental organisations on Saturday, in the latest blow to women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban returned to power in 2021.

The Taliban had already suspended university education for women and secondary schooling for girls.

The 15-member UN security council said it was “deeply alarmed” by the increasing restrictions on women’s education, calling for “the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan”.

It urged the Taliban “to reopen schools and swiftly reverse these policies and practices, which represents an increasing erosion for the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms”.

The council also condemned the ban on women working for NGOs, warning of the detrimental impact the ban will have on aid operations in a country where millions rely on them.

“These restrictions contradict the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community.”

The international community has made respecting women’s rights a condition in negotiations with the Taliban government over the restoration of aid.

The UN secretary general, António Guterres, echoed the security council’s message, calling the latest restrictions on women and girls “unjustifiable human rights violations” that “must be revoked”.

On Tuesday, the UN rights chief warned of the “terrible” consequences such policies would have.

“No country can develop – indeed survive – socially and economically with half its population excluded,” said Volker Turk, high commissioner for human rights.

“These unfathomable restrictions placed on women and girls will not only increase the suffering of all Afghans but, I fear, pose a risk beyond Afghanistan’s borders.”

Turk warned that banning women from working in NGOs would strip families of crucial incomes as well as “significantly impair, if not destroy” organisations’ capacity to deliver essential services, calling it all the more distressing with Afghanistan in the grip of winter, when humanitarian needs are at their highest.

Several foreign aid groups announced on Sunday they were suspending their operations in Afghanistan.

Women have also been pushed out of many government jobs, prevented from travelling without a male relative and ordered to cover up outside the home, preferably with a burqa.

“Women and girls cannot be denied their inherent rights,” said Turk.

“Attempts by the de facto authorities to relegate them to silence and invisibility will not succeed.”