News Center- The Coalition of Afghan Women’s Protest Movements held press conferences on Sunday, April 9, in various provinces such as Kabul, Takhar, Bamyan and Badakhshan about the ban of the Taliban on Afghan women employees of the United Nations from working throughout Afghanistan. The coalition called on the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) to close its offices in Afghanistan due to its silence.

 The coalition said, “In December 2022, when the Taliban banned women from working at NGOs, women protesters expected international aid agencies to have a unified approach in protesting the Taliban’s restrictions on women and not continue their activities in Afghanistan without female employees. Contrary to our expectations, once again international aid agencies, including the United Nations, negotiated an agreement with the Taliban that allowed women to continue their work in limited sectors. The lack of unified and strong action in response to the Taliban’s continued attacks on women’s rights has paved the way for the Taliban to continue their attacks. We call on UNAMA and other international aid agencies to close their offices in Afghanistan until women are allowed to work again.”

What happened?

On April 5, 2023, the Taliban issued an order to ban Afghan women employees of the United Nations from working throughout Afghanistan. After the ban, the United Nations asked all staff not to come to the office for 48 hours and asked all Afghan staff not to come to work at least until May.