The Security Council on Thursday discussed the repressive practises of the Taliban, who took over that nation in August last year, participants in the discussion noted that women and girls in Afghanistan are being denied their most fundamental human rights, including employment and education, amidst the country's deteriorating humanitarian and economic conditions.
"Women are collectively being written out of society in a way that is unique in the world," said Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and officer-in-charge for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), briefing the Council via video-teleconference
He emphasised that these limitations, which include the decision to forbid girls from attending secondary education and to mandate women to cover their faces, target the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls are restricting their participation in social, political, and economic life. He also emphasised that UNAMA will continue to speak out loudly and in public to defend Afghans' rights, particularly those of women and girls.
Yalda Hakim, an international correspondent and news presenter for BBC News, said she was speaking to the Council as "a daughter of Afghanistan" with a personal and profound connection to the country and as someone who has been reporting from Afghanistan for the past 15 years.
Today marks 279 days since the Taliban banned teenage girls from school, she noted, pointing out that "Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where girls are prevented from getting an education, locked out of their classrooms, simply because of their gender". Education is not a privilege, but a basic human right, she emphasized.
