About 20 women have held a demonstration in a street in the Afghan capital, Kabul, calling on the international community to protect Afghans.
Afghanistan under the Taliban government is the “most repressive country in the world” for women’s rights, with authorities effectively trapping women and girls in their homes, the United Nations said on Wednesday, the day of the protest.
The Taliban, which swept back to power in august 2021, adheres to an austere interpretation of Islam, and has imposed a slew of restrictions on girls and women since then.
“It has been distressing to witness their methodical, deliberate, and systematic efforts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere,” Roza Otunbayeva, head of the UN mission in Afghanistan, said in a statement marking International Women’s Day.
The UN mission said the crackdown was a “colossal act of national self-harm” at a time Afghanistan faces some of the world’s largest humanitarian and economic crises.
Taliban authorities have removed women from all but essential government jobs.
Women are also barred from going to parks, funfairs, gyms, and public baths, and ordered to cover up in public with a burqa.
But the biggest crackdown has been on teenage girls and university students, with the authorities banning them from secondary schools and higher educational institutions.No country has officially recognised the Taliban government as Afghanistan’s legitimate rulers, with the right to education for women a sticking point in negotiations over aid and recognition.
A recent Reuters report quotes aid agencies as saying that more than half of Afghanistan’s 38 million people are facing hunger and nearly four million children suffer from malnutrition.
The crisis was compounded late last year when the Taliban leadership banned Afghan women from working with NGOs, forcing several aid agencies to suspend their vital work.
Foreign aid has also declined dramatically since Afghanistan’s assets were frozen by the United States after the Taliban returned to power, further aggravating the crisis.
Alison Davidian, the United Nations’ special representative for women in Afghanistan, said the implications of the government’s policies “impacts all Afghans and will resonate throughout generations”.
