The Taliban's chief spokesman said Wednesday there are no obstacles for the U.N. to function in Afghanistan, after they barred Afghan women from working at the global body.
Last week, the country's Taliban rulers took a step further in the restrictive measures they have imposed on women and said that female Afghan staffers employed with the U.N. mission can no longer report for work. The ban is being actively enforced by the country's intelligence agency, which reports to the Taliban's leadership in Kandahar.
The U.N. says it cannot accept the decision, calling it unlawful and an unparalleled violation of women’s rights. It says women are crucial for the delivery of life-saving aid to millions of Afghans, and has instructed its national staff, male and female, to stay at home.
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Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-led government's chief spokesman and part of the supreme leader's inner circle, denied authorities were to blame for Afghanistan's many crises.
The decision to bar Afghan women from working at the U.N. was an internal matter and should be respected by all sides, Mujahid said, as he set out the Taliban's position and demands to the international community.
Re"This decision does not mean there is discrimination here, or that the activities of the United Nations are blocked. On the contrary, we are committed to all the rights of all our countrymen, taking into account their religious and cultural interests.
“Considering the emergency situation in Afghanistan, it is necessary for the member countries of the United Nations to resolve the problem of frozen Afghan assets, banking, travel bans and other restrictions as soon as possible so that Afghanistan can progress in economic, political and security areas. Afghans have the capacity to stand on their own feet.”
Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely affected by a Taliban edict banning women from working at non-governmental organizations — and, now, also at the U.N, allegedly because they weren't wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf correctly, or following gender segregation.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, called the order barring Afghan women from NGO and U.N. work “an internal values-based issue” that is not harming others.
The United Nations' head of mission in the country, Roza Otunbayeva, has “initiated an operational review period” lasting until May 5 in response to the ban, according to a U.N. statement.During this time, the U.N. will “conduct the necessary consultations, make required operational adjustments, and accelerate contingency planning for all possible outcomes,” a veiled suggestion that it could move to suspend its mission and operations in the embattled country.
"In a statement on Tuesday, the UN mission in Afghanistan said the ban was “unlawful under international law, including the UN Charter, and for that reason, the United Nations cannot comply”.
“Through this ban, the Taliban de facto authorities seek to force the United Nations into having to make an appalling choice between staying and delivering in support of the Afghan people and standing by the norms and principles we are duty-bound to uphold,” it said.
The U.N. has warned that its Afghan operations are also under threat because of a severe funding crisis, putting millions of lives at risk.
“Already, the food basket has had to be cut to half due to insufficient resources. If funding is not urgently secured, millions of Afghans will be staring down the barrel of famine, disease & death,” its office for humanitarian affairs said in a tweet Wednesday.
No country has recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and the country's seat at the U.N. is held by the former government of President Ashraf Ghani.
Last week, the country's Taliban rulers took a step further in the restrictive measures they have imposed on women and said that female Afghan staffers employed with the U.N. mission can no longer report for work. The ban is being actively enforced by the country's intelligence agency, which reports to the Taliban's leadership in Kandahar.
The U.N. says it cannot accept the decision, calling it unlawful and an unparalleled violation of women’s rights. It says women are crucial for the delivery of life-saving aid to millions of Afghans, and has instructed its national staff, male and female, to stay at home.
.jpeg)
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban-led government's chief spokesman and part of the supreme leader's inner circle, denied authorities were to blame for Afghanistan's many crises.
The decision to bar Afghan women from working at the U.N. was an internal matter and should be respected by all sides, Mujahid said, as he set out the Taliban's position and demands to the international community.
Re"This decision does not mean there is discrimination here, or that the activities of the United Nations are blocked. On the contrary, we are committed to all the rights of all our countrymen, taking into account their religious and cultural interests.
“Considering the emergency situation in Afghanistan, it is necessary for the member countries of the United Nations to resolve the problem of frozen Afghan assets, banking, travel bans and other restrictions as soon as possible so that Afghanistan can progress in economic, political and security areas. Afghans have the capacity to stand on their own feet.”
Aid agencies have been providing food, education and health care support to Afghans in the wake of the Taliban takeover and the economic collapse that followed it. But distribution has been severely affected by a Taliban edict banning women from working at non-governmental organizations — and, now, also at the U.N, allegedly because they weren't wearing the hijab, or Islamic headscarf correctly, or following gender segregation.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abdul Qahar Balkhi, called the order barring Afghan women from NGO and U.N. work “an internal values-based issue” that is not harming others.
The United Nations' head of mission in the country, Roza Otunbayeva, has “initiated an operational review period” lasting until May 5 in response to the ban, according to a U.N. statement.During this time, the U.N. will “conduct the necessary consultations, make required operational adjustments, and accelerate contingency planning for all possible outcomes,” a veiled suggestion that it could move to suspend its mission and operations in the embattled country.
"In a statement on Tuesday, the UN mission in Afghanistan said the ban was “unlawful under international law, including the UN Charter, and for that reason, the United Nations cannot comply”.
“Through this ban, the Taliban de facto authorities seek to force the United Nations into having to make an appalling choice between staying and delivering in support of the Afghan people and standing by the norms and principles we are duty-bound to uphold,” it said.
The U.N. has warned that its Afghan operations are also under threat because of a severe funding crisis, putting millions of lives at risk.
“Already, the food basket has had to be cut to half due to insufficient resources. If funding is not urgently secured, millions of Afghans will be staring down the barrel of famine, disease & death,” its office for humanitarian affairs said in a tweet Wednesday.
No country has recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan and the country's seat at the U.N. is held by the former government of President Ashraf Ghani.
I recently contacted my friends/colleagues in Afghanistan. As of now, most female national staff are working from home. UNICEF's position––it's the their choice to attend the office/s physically but nothing about providing protection to female staff should they decide to come to the office/s.
ReplyDeleteI am not aware whether UNICEF has yet negotiated about the safety issues of female national staff with the Talibans. I may have missed any strong statements from UNICEF or about any strategies we have adopted to navigate through this extremely disturbing situation. (Apologies if I sound doubtful).
Are we still following the "lukewarm" path? . . . I would like to be educated about UNICEF's current position. Too many lives have been lost, and broken in the line of duty.
Thanks
40-45 years ago when young Afghan boys were being separated from their families and large number of them were taken to Pakistani Madrasas for so called "training", "education", "brainwashing" some of us knew that was a bad news. But we didn't know how bad? After all who could say anything, or criticise "Islamic teaching"? Now we see the results. Those young boys are todays hardline taliban leaders and they are controlling. Anti women and suspicious of Afghan women because they had no women, no mothers in their lives. They were pumped with lies about women, about Afghan women by their Pakistani so called teachers and Imams The UN is blamed, UNICEF is blamed, we are blamed for not raising our voices. It is now too late, I am afraid to say!!! Gulbadan
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