UN Warns Afghan Women Are Being Excluded from the Country’s Future
DID Press: Sima Bahous, United Nations Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UN Women, has said that women and girls in Afghanistan continue to be systematically excluded from public life and denied the opportunity to participate in shaping their country’s future.
Speaking on Tuesday, October 27, at an open meeting of the UN Security Council on Women, Peace and Security, Bahous said women and girls in conflict-affected areas face growing risks of gender-based violence, sexual exploitation and human trafficking.
Referring to a report by the UN Secretary-General, she said nearly 80 percent of active peace negotiations in 2025 took place without a single woman present. Women accounted for only five percent of participants across 57 peace processes examined, she added.
The Executive Director of UN Women also said that nearly 40 percent of women and girls living in extreme poverty reside in conflict-affected areas. In addition, 756 million women and girls live within 50 km of areas affected by armed conflict.
Bahous stressed that excluding women from peace processes directly affects the content of peace agreements and the level of protection provided to those affected by conflict. She also noted that the financial situation of 61 percent of women-led organizations in crisis-affected areas had deteriorated compared with a year earlier.
She called on UN member states to ensure that women make up at least one-third of participants in peace processes and to allocate at least 15 percent of official development assistance to conflict-affected countries toward advancing gender equality.
Bahous also emphasized the need to support women-led organizations, protect women peacebuilders and hold perpetrators of violence against women and girls accountable.
Concluding her remarks, she said the central question was whether there was sufficient political will to share power, invest in women’s leadership and turn commitments into practical action.