UK, US and UN Officials Call for Greater Role for Afghan Women

DID Press: United Kingdom, the United States and senior United Nations officials have called for greater participation by Afghan women and girls in shaping their country’s future, criticizing restrictions on their rights and their exclusion from public life.

Kate Foster, the UK’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, said at a Security Council meeting on Women, Peace and Security on October 27 that women and girls in Afghanistan had been systematically excluded from public life and decision-making processes. She stressed that women’s voices must play a central role in discussions about Afghanistan’s future.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres also expressed concern over increasing restrictions on the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan, Mali, Yemen and Somalia.

Sima Bahous, Executive Director of UN Women, said Afghan women and girls continued to face systematic exclusion from public life and had no voice in determining their country’s future.

Tammy Bruce, the United States’ Deputy Representative to the United Nations, said the Taliban government continued to deny young Afghan women opportunities for education, employment and vocational training.

She added that over the past five years, the Taliban had systematically reversed decades of progress in women’s participation in peace and security efforts, and called for these measures to stop immediately.

Since returning to power in August 2021, the Taliban government has imposed restrictions on women’s and girls’ access to education, employment and public life. These restrictions have repeatedly drawn criticism from the United Nations and international human rights organizations.

The Taliban government, however, considers the restrictions to be internal Afghan matters and has urged foreign countries and organizations not to interfere in the country’s domestic affairs.