UN Women has sounded a stark alarm over the Taliban’s escalating restrictions on Afghan women working for the United Nations, warning that the three-month ban on female staff entering UN offices is gravely undermining humanitarian operations and endangering the lives of vulnerable Afghan women and girls.
In a statement on Sunday, Susan Ferguson, UN Women’s Representative in Afghanistan, said that for 91 days the Taliban have blocked Afghan female UN employees from entering United Nations premises, forcing them to carry out critical work from home or in the field under increasingly difficult conditions. She stressed that effective humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan “must be delivered by women, to women,” noting that without female staff, the UN’s ability to reach women and girls safely collapses.
Ferguson said Afghan women remain central to the UN’s presence in the country, emphasising that their exclusion is not only a violation of fundamental human rights and the equality principles enshrined in the UN Charter, but also a direct attack on the organisation’s operational capacity. She said the United Nations “remains firmly opposed” to the Taliban’s gender-based bans, describing them as policies that deliberately prevent women from accessing essential services, including health care in earthquake-affected regions.
Calling for the immediate reversal of the ban, Ferguson urged the Taliban to guarantee safe, unhindered access for all Afghan female staff and contractors to UN offices and field locations so assistance can reach those most in need.
Sources told Afghanistan International that in early September the Taliban deployed security forces to block female UN employees from entering the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) office in Kabul, claiming the order came directly from Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. The move was later replicated in Herat and Mazar-e Sharif, where Taliban guards were posted outside UN facilities, informing female staff that they were no longer permitted to work for the UN or any institution.
The United Nations warned that these sweeping restrictions would severely curtail aid delivery to vulnerable communities across multiple provinces. The latest ban comes despite earlier arrangements that allowed Afghan women to continue working for the UN even after the Taliban prohibited them from employment in domestic and international organisations.
UN agencies have repeatedly stated that the Taliban’s gender-based decrees—now extending into every sphere of public life—are crippling humanitarian operations and deepening an already catastrophic crisis for Afghan women and girls.
