A UN spokesman says the United Nations will continue to engage all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, even though it has banned women’s voices and bare faces in public and severed ties with the UN mission.
ISLAMABAD — The United Nations will continue to engage all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban, a UN spokesman said, even as Afghan leaders a ban on female voices and naked faces in public and severed ties with the UN mission after it criticized them.
UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric defended the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, or UNAMA, and its head in New York Rosa Otunbayeva, who said the new laws paint a “worrying picture” of Afghanistan’s future.
She said last week that the laws ” already unbearable limitations “on the rights of women and girls, with “even the sound of a woman’s voice” outside the home apparently considered a moral violation.
The laws were enacted after they were approved by Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada. The Taliban had established a ministry for the ” “dissemination of virtue and prevention of vice” after seizing power in 2021. They say the laws are based on their interpretation of Sharia law.
The ministry called on international organizations, countries and individuals to respect the religious values of Muslims. It announced on Friday that it would no longer cooperate with UNAMA over its criticism of the laws.
“We have been very vocal about the decision to further eliminate the presence of women in Afghanistan. In terms of engagement with the de facto authorities, I mean, we will continue to engage with all stakeholders in Afghanistan, including the Taliban,” Dujarric said at a news conference.
“We have always done that according to our mandate and I would say impartially and in good faith, always upholding the standards of the UN, pushing the messages of human rights and equality. And we will continue our work as mandated by the Security Council.”
