21 Oct 2025 - 13:33
Sapna Roidar
The Kabul Tribune (KT) — The United Nations Secretary-General has condemned what he called the appalling scale and speed of the suppression of women’s and girls rights in Afghanistan, even as the U.N. continues to deliver aid and support under increasingly restrictive conditions.
According to the Secretary-General-s report on women, peace and security, released ahead of the 25th anniversary of Security Council Resolution 1325, the U.N. provided life-saving humanitarian aid to more than 9 million Afghan women and girls in 2024, despite sweeping Taliban-imposed bans on education, employment, and public participation.
The report noted that although not a single restriction against women-s rights has been reversed, U.N. agencies have managed to sustain key programs. These include community-based education that reached hundreds of thousands of girls, radio programs created by women for women that provided mental health and financial literacy support, and assistance to tens of thousands of women-led businesses and organizations.
The Secretary-General also warned that Afghanistan faces a worsening maternal health crisis. One-third of Afghan women still give birth without professional medical assistance, and preventable complications kill a woman every two hours.
The Taliban’s ban on women’s medical training, the report said, will prevent more than 36,000 midwives and 2,800 nurses from joining the workforce in the coming years — a move expected to increase maternal mortality rates by more than 50 percent by 2026.
The report highlighted that restrictions on women humanitarian workers have sharply risen since the Taliban enacted the (Law on the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice) in August 2024.
The proportion of organizations reporting that women staff are barred from their duties jumped from 22 percent to 47 percent in a matter of months.
Beyond Afghanistan, the report also cited Myanmar, where humanitarian access has been obstructed and politicized, including in the aftermath of the March 2025 earthquake.
Despite mounting challenges — including U.N. staff casualties, detentions, and a severe funding crisis — the Secretary-General stressed that the Organization (continues to stand firmly for women and girls) and urged Member States to ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health services in line with international standards.
