Feminine Afghan UN staff harassed, detained: report

Some Afghan girls employed by the United Nations have been detained, harassed and had restrictions positioned on their actions since being banned by the Taliban from working for the world physique, the UN says.

Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers knowledgeable the United Nations early final month that Afghan girls employed with the UN mission may now not report for work.

“That is the newest in a collection of discriminatory – and illegal – measures carried out by the de facto authorities with the aim of severely proscribing girls and women’ participation in most areas of public and every day life in Afghanistan,” the UN mentioned on Tuesday in a report on the human rights state of affairs within the south Asian nation.

Taliban authorities continued to crack down on dissenting voices this 12 months, specifically those that converse out on points associated to the rights of ladies and women, the report mentioned.

The UN report cited the March arrest of 4 girls who have been launched the next day throughout a protest demanding entry to training and work within the capital of Kabul and the arrest of Matiullah Wesa, head of PenPath, a civil society organisation campaigning for the reopening of women’ faculties.

It additionally pointed to the arrest of a girls’s rights activist Parisa Mobariz and her brother in February within the northern Takhar province.

A number of different civil society activists have been launched — reportedly with out being charged — following prolonged intervals of arbitrary detention by the Taliban Intelligence service, the report mentioned.

The measures could have disastrous results on Afghanistan’s prospects for prosperity, stability and peace, the United Nations Help Mission in Afghanistan, UNAMA mentioned within the report.

“UNAMA is worried by growing restrictions on civic house throughout Afghanistan,” mentioned Fiona Frazer, the company’s human rights chief.

The Taliban beforehand banned women from going to highschool past the sixth grade and blocked girls from most public life and work. In December, they banned Afghan girls from working at native and non-governmental organisations — a measure that on the time didn’t prolong to UN places of work.

The report additionally pointed to ongoing extrajudicial killings of people affiliated with the previous authorities. On March 5 in southern Kandahar, Taliban forces arrested a former police officer from his residence, then shot and killed him, based on the report. Throughout the identical month in northern Balkh, a former navy official was killed by unknown armed males in his home, it mentioned.

“Arbitrary arrests and detention of former authorities officers and Afghanistan Nationwide Safety and Protection Pressure members additionally occurred all through February, March and April,” added the report.

In a separate report launched on Monday, the UN strongly criticised the Taliban for finishing up public executions, lashings and stonings since seizing energy in Afghanistan, and referred to as on the nation’s rulers to halt such practices.

Up to now six months alone, 274 males, 58 girls and two boys have been publicly flogged in Afghanistan, mentioned the report.

The primary Taliban spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, condemned Monday’s UN report about public executions and different punishments carried out by Afghanistan’s new rulers. In a tweet, he referred to as the UN considerations baseless, saying the the Taliban observe Islamic, or Sharia, legislation, which he claimed has strengthened the judicial system.

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