Overview
- UN Women’s representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson, called for the immediate reversal of the office-entry ban on Afghan female UN staff.
- UN sources say several hundred Afghan women employed by UN agencies are affected by the restriction.
- The UN warns the measure violates human rights and equality principles and undermines access to women and girls who require assistance.
- UNHCR suspended cash assistance to returning Afghans in September because it cannot interview returning women without local female staff.
- The Taliban previously barred NGOs from working with Afghan women in 2022 and extended restrictions to UN agencies in 2023, with limited exceptions then tolerated.