In a statement on Monday, the UN mission described “an emerging pattern of harassment of Afghan female UN staff by de facto authorities. Three Afghan women working for the UN were recently briefly detained and interrogated by Taliban gunmen,” it said. The UN called for an immediate end to all such acts of “intimidation and harassment targeting Afghan female personnel” and reminded local authorities of their obligations under international law to guarantee the safety of all UN personnel operating in Afghanistan. A statement released by the Taliban late Monday night denied that local authorities had arrested UN officials. The incident came as Richard Bennett, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Afghanistan, called for radical changes. “The severe rollback of women’s and girls’ rights, reprisals targeting opponents and critics, and the Taliban’s suppression of freedom of expression amount to a descent into authoritarianism,” he told a meeting of the Human Rights Council. Ambassador to Afghanistan Nasir Ahmad Andisha, who represents the ousted government, went further, describing a “gender apartheid” in the country. Several Afghan women spoke at the same meeting, including rights activist Mahbouba Seraj, who urged the 47-member council to create a mechanism to investigate abuses. “God only knows what kind of atrocities go unreported,” he told a room full of UN diplomats in Geneva. “And I want it to be reported because that’s not right. World: this is not right. Please, please, you have to do something about this.’ A year after the Taliban took power in Afghanistan, teenage girls are still excluded from school and women must be covered from head to toe in public, with only their eyes visible. Hardliners appear to dominate the Taliban-led government, which has imposed severe restrictions on access to education and jobs for girls and women, despite initial promises to the contrary. Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ilze Brands Kehris said that some 850,000 girls have so far dropped out of school, putting them at risk of child marriage and sexual and economic exploitation. On Saturday, in eastern Afghanistan’s Paktia province, Taliban authorities closed five girls’ schools above the sixth grade that had been briefly opened on the recommendation of tribal elders and school principals. Earlier this month, four girls’ schools in Gardez, the provincial capital, and one in Shamkani district began operating without official permission from the Taliban’s education ministry. On Saturday, all five schools were closed again by the authorities. The UN has repeatedly urged the Taliban to ensure respect for international human rights.
