KABUL (Amu tv): UN Secretary-General António Guterres on Tuesday strongly condemned the Taliban’s decision to bar Afghan women from working with United Nations agencies, calling the policy both “intolerable” and “stupid.”
“Well, what’s happening in Afghanistan is absolutely intolerable. And it’s not only intolerable, it’s also stupid,” Guterres told reporters in New York. “Because not to allow women and girls to participate in humanitarian aid is terribly detrimental to the whole population of Afghanistan.”
He said the UN is using every channel available to push for change. “We are doing everything we can directly and mobilizing the international community to make the Taliban understand that it is in the vital interest of Afghanistan that women and girls are allowed to do humanitarian work,” he said. “And that humanitarian aid reaches effectively women and girls in the country. The present situation is intolerable.”
Guterres added that the restrictions represent an escalation in Afghanistan’s crisis. “Of course, we understand that there is a long way to go,” he said. “But now we have, I would say, a more serious situation with the deprivation of humanitarian aid to women and girls in several situations. And not allowing women and girls to provide humanitarian aid. And this is something that is, in my opinion, totally unacceptable.”
The remarks follow a recent announcement by the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) that it was forced to suspend cash assistance programs for returning refugees after the Taliban barred its female staff from working.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban have imposed sweeping restrictions on women, including bans on education, employment and most public life. Aid groups and rights advocates warn the measures have worsened Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis, where the UN says two-thirds of the population rely on some form of assistance.
