{"id":6288,"date":"2021-09-22T11:05:13","date_gmt":"2021-09-22T11:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/?p=6288"},"modified":"2021-09-22T11:05:13","modified_gmt":"2021-09-22T11:05:13","slug":"afghan-women-have-been-progressively-excluded-from-the-public-sphere","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/2021\/09\/afghan-women-have-been-progressively-excluded-from-the-public-sphere\/","title":{"rendered":"Afghan women have been \u201cprogressively excluded from the public sphere\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) \u2013 Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month, they have made some commitments to uphold human rights. However, their subsequent actions have \u201csadly contradicted\u201d those promises, the UN rights chief told a side event of the General Assembly on Tuesday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Michelle Bachelet\u00a0informed<\/a>\u00a0a high-level event on safeguarding 20 years of international engagement in Afghanistan, that women have been \u201cprogressively excluded from the public sphere\u201d, prohibited from appearing without a male guardian and face increasing restrictions on their right to work.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry that once promoted women’s rights has been disbanded, and its premises taken over by a Ministry for the propagation of Virtue and the prevention of Vice \u2013 an all-male office that will apply guidelines on appropriate dress and behaviour\u201d the human rights chief said.<\/p>\n

Moreover, Taliban representatives have dismantled many other former government offices for women\u2019s affairs, gaining access to sensitive files, threatening staff, and accusing women’s civil society groups of spreading \u201canti-Islamic\u201d ideas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is real and palpable fear among Afghan women of a return to the Taliban’s brutal and systemic repression of women and girls\u00a0during the 1990s\u201d, said the High Commissioner.<\/p>\n

Severe consequences<\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0a growing humanitarian crisis across the country is putting one million children in danger of extreme hunger,\u00a0with families headed by women \u2013 most of whom can no longer work \u2013 among those at greatest risk.<\/p>\n

Over the last 20 years, Afghan women have worked towards ensuring greater respect for and protection of their rights to education, work, political participation and freedom \u2013 of movement and expression.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese rights are part of the evolution of Afghan society and are integral to the development and economic growth of Afghanistan\u201d, underscored Ms. Bachelet.<\/p>\n

As women and girls comprise half of Afghanistan\u2019s population, she reminded that the country would benefit by utilizing their talents and capabilities.<\/p>\n

The High Commissioner said that \u201cfirst and foremost\u201d, women and girls must have full and equal access to essential services, including healthcare and education; be able to work in every sector of the economy; be free to move without restrictions; and live free of all gender-related violence.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn short,\u00a0Afghan women and girls\u2019 human rights must be upheld and defended\u201d.<\/p>\n

When engaging with the Taliban, Ms. Bachelet stressed that the international community, including the UN and all its Member States, must commit to \u201cstrong advocacy that demands compliance with these basic requirements for any fair and just society\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cRespect for the rights of the women and girls of Afghanistan now will be a harbinger of the country’s future\u201d, she said. \u201cThey face extraordinary challenges \u2013 and we will remain at their side\u201d.<\/p>\n

ENDS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MONITORING (SW) \u2013 Since the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan last month, they have made some commitments to uphold human rights. However, their subsequent actions have \u201csadly contradicted\u201d those promises, the UN rights chief told a side event of the General Assembly on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17,200,24,8,6],"tags":[12,13,207,322],"class_list":["post-6288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-report","category-security_","category-democracy-human-rights","category-women","category-governance","category-afghanistan","tag-afghanistan","tag-taliban","tag-women","tag-un"],"views":608,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swn.af\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}