UN urges Afghanistan's Taliban to reverse bans on women
CTV
The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their increasingly harsh restrictions on women and girls, which range from severely restricting education to banning women from most jobs, public spaces and gyms.
The UN Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Thursday calling on Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their increasingly harsh restrictions on women and girls, which range from severely restricting education to banning women from most jobs, public spaces and gyms.
The council condemned the Taliban's ban on women working for the UN, a decision the resolution calls "unprecedented in the history of the United Nations."
The unanimous 15-0 vote, with the United States, Russia and China all in favour, was a sign of the widespread global concerns over the Taliban's actions. It was a rare moment of unity on a high-profile issue at a time of steep international divisions over the Ukraine war, although both Russia and China criticized the United States after the vote for its past role in Afghanistan and for refusing to return all $7 billion in frozen Afghan government funds.
The Security Council never considered sanctions against the Taliban but the strong rebuke by the UN's most powerful body is a blow to the prestige of Afghanistan's rulers, who are trying get credibility on the global stage -- including formal recognition by the United Nations as Afghanistan's legitimate government.
When the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war, they initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001. But there has been a growing international outcry as Taliban leaders have gradually re-imposed their severe interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, on women and girls.
During the 20 years after the Taliban were ousted in 2001 for harbouring al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, schools and universities were opened for girls and women entered the workforce and politics, and became judges, ministers and professors.
U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood told the council after the vote, "Today, the Security Council has sent a clear. unanimous message to the Taliban and to the world: We will not stand for the Taliban's repression of women and girls."
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