June 24. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The head of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), Ramiz Alakbarov, warned this Friday before the Security Council that the Afghan authorities are ‘de facto’ excluding women and girls from society.
“Women are being collectively eliminated from society in a way that is unique in the world,” she asserted, stressing that the Afghan authorities “have increasingly restricted the exercise of basic human rights, including the freedom of peaceful assembly, freedom of opinion and expression, repressing dissent and restricting civic space in the country”.
These restrictions, he stressed, target “the rights and freedoms of Afghan women and girls”, limiting their participation in social, political and economic life, including the banning of secondary education for girls and the decision to impose face coverings. or even corporeal to women, like the burqa.
Alakbarov has emphasized that UNAMA “will continue to be a vocal and visible voice to safeguard the rights of the people of Afghanistan”, especially women and girls.
Yalda Hakim, international correspondent and news presenter for BBC News –who has testified before the Council as a correspondent in Afghanistan for the last 15 years–, recalled that this Thursday 279 years have passed since the Taliban banned teenagers go to school.
“Afghanistan is now the only country in the world where girls are prevented from receiving an education, they are excluded from their classrooms, simply because of their gender (…) Education is not a privilege, but a basic right”, has emphasized.
The UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, Martin Griffiths, has informed the Council, via videoconference, that the “dramatic” changes in the political and economic landscape of Afghanistan in August 2021 “have caused unrelenting human suffering “.
“A whopping 25 million people in Afghanistan now live in poverty, more than double the number in 2011… Today, the average household spends three-quarters of its income on food,” said Griffiths, who has emphasized that 19 million people – almost half of the country’s population – have food insecurity problems, including 6.6 million people who are in emergency levels, “the highest number of any country in the world” .
He also recalled that more than 190 United Nations partners provide help to millions of people every day, with an expansion that has reached 20 million people in the 401 districts in 2022.
However, referring to Alakbarov’s office in Afghanistan, he added that it “simply doesn’t have enough funds.” “Only a third of the resources needed for the 2022 Humanitarian Response Plan have been received,” he added, calling for more support.
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