Afghan UN staff sent home after the Taliban banned women from working with the organization

The United Nations has announced it has been forced to make a “terrible choice” after instructing all its staff in Afghanistan not to come to its offices in the country following the Taliban’s ban on women working at the organization.

„UN national staff, men and women, have been instructed not to report to UN offices, with only limited exceptions for critical duties“, the organization stated in a statement.

The decision came after Afghan men working for the UN in Kabul stayed home last week in solidarity with their female colleagues.

The UN claims that the ban was “the latest in a series of discriminatory measures implemented by the Taliban’s de facto authorities to severely restrict the participation of women and girls in most areas of public and daily life in Afghanistan“.

The UN is monitoring the situation and is trying to talk with Taliban leaders to get “an immediate cancellation of the order”.

„In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever tried to ban women from working for the Organization simply because they are women. This decision represents an attack against women, the fundamental principles of the UN and international law“, said the special representative of the UN Secretary General for Afghanistan, Roza Otunbayeva.