Jurist UN coalition calls for end to Taliban policy blocking women from UN premises

[Dadparvar]

A coalition of United Nations (UN) experts on Tuesday issued a press release calling for Taliban authorities to immediately lift their ban on Afghan women entering UN premises, calling the policy a clear violation of international law with life-threatening humanitarian consequences.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban has imposed sweeping restrictions on women’s participation in public life. The latest and most direct affront to international operations came in September 2025, when armed Taliban forces began physically blocking Afghan women, including UN employees, from entering UN premises nationwide. In Tuesday’s press release, the coalition of UN experts, comprised of Special Rapporteurs and Working Group members, condemned the Taliban’s policy in unequivocal terms. The press release explains:

Barring women from UN offices is a direct attack on women’s rights, including their right to work. There can be no cultural, religious or administrative justification for this policy…In a society where it is imperative that women deliver services to women, life-saving aid, including in response to natural disasters, as well as humanitarian and protection operations, are being compromised, and women and girls are the primary casualties…The continued enforcement of this ban, and wider restrictions on women’s rights, is unacceptable, a violation under international law, and profoundly damaging to Afghanistan’s future.

The coalition calls on UN Secretary-General António Guterres, who has publicly condemned the ban, to coordinate a system-wide institutional response, and further calls on UN Member States to apply “sustained diplomatic pressure.”

This follows similar calls for action made by UN representatives as the treatment of women in Afghanistan and the rule of law continue to degrade under Taliban rule. In February, the Taliban enacted a new penal code that allows husbands to physically punish their wives. Last month, the agency UN Women vowed to continue its provision of aid for women and girls in Afghanistan.

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