The UN Security Council on 27 December decried the increasing restrictions on women’s rights in Afghanistan and urged the country’s Taliban rulers to reverse them immediately.

“The Security Council…. reiterated its deep concern of the suspension of schools beyond the sixth grade, and its call for the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan,” the UNSC said in a press release dated 27 December.

The Security Council has also urged the Taliban regime to reverse its policies which signifies the erosion of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms.

“Reopen schools and swiftly reverse these policies and practices, which represent an increasing erosion of the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms,” the UNSC added.

“The Taliban have banned female employees of NGOs and international organizations from going to work, which would have a significant and immediate impact on humanitarian operations in the country, including those of the UN, and the delivery of aid and health work, and that these restrictions contradict the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community,” the Security Council said while raising its concern over the recent reports on Taliban banning women from NGO work.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk pointed to the terrible consequences of a decision to bar women from working for non-governmental organisations.

“No country can develop — indeed survive — socially and economically with half its population excluded,” Türk said in a statement issued in Geneva. “These unfathomable restrictions placed on women and girls will not only increase the suffering of all Afghans but, I fear, pose a risk beyond Afghanistan’s borders,” he added.

Last week, Taliban authorities stopped university education for women and on 24 December excluded women from NGO work.