UN prepared for 'heartbreaking' withdrawal from Afghanistan

United Nations officials said they are prepared to take the "heartbreaking" decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May unless they are able to gain permission from the country's Taliban administration to allow local women to work for the organisation. 

This comes after the international body spent months trying to convince the militant group's administration to make an exception to their rules. 

The UN employs 2,700 Afghan men and 600 Afghan women in Afghanistan. They stopped work on 12 April, when the Taliban issued an order preventing local women from working for the body although they continue to work and be paid, according to a UN spokesperson.

Afghanistan: Restrictions on women’s rights to work and education could result in a reduction in humanitarian aid, leading to severe economic consequences, warns @UNDP. https://t.co/IR70oGNBGf

— United Nations (@UN) April 19, 2023

The UN also employs some 200 non-Afghans in Afghanistan who are unaffected by the rules.

This is just one of a series of edicts issued by the militant group over the past few months that severely curtail women’s rights. Women are barred from access to school or higher education institutions and are also prevented from working in most parts of the country. 

Women make up around a third of locally hired agency staff and are also generally more vulnerable to any reduction in aid services.

"It is fair to say that where we are right now is the entire United Nations system having to take a step back and re-evaluating its ability to operate [in Afghanistan]," Achim Steiner, the head of the UN Development Programme (UNDP), said as quoted by The Guardian. "But it’s not about negotiating fundamental principles, human rights."

"I think there is no other way of putting it than heartbreaking. I mean, if I were to imagine the UN family not being in Afghanistan today, I have before me these images of millions of young girls, young boys, fathers, mothers, who essentially will not have enough to eat."

The UN’s potential withdrawal comes as Afghanistan struggles with a dire humanitarian crisis. Unemployment has risen by 40 percent and around 75 percent of people’s income is now spent on food, according to the UN. 

Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Deputy Special Representative and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan termed it the "world’s largest humanitarian crisis in 2023."