WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Afghanistan is confronting 'a perfect storm' of overlapping crises, the UN's outgoing envoy warned the Security Council on Wednesday, as an Afghan women's rights advocate told the body that Taliban policies amount to 'gender apartheid' which are suffocating a whole generation of girls.
Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, told ambassadors that while the country has seen a relative decline in armed conflict since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the humanitarian, economic and human rights situation has deteriorated significantly.
'It is an open question whether there is sufficient pragmatism among the de facto authorities [the Taliban] to manage this perfect storm of crises, or whether decisions driven by ideology will prevent sustainable solutions,' she said.
Central to the crisis, Ms. Otunbayeva stressed, are sweeping Taliban restrictions on Afghan women and girls.
Schools for girls above grade six have now been closed for four years, costing the economy an estimated $1.4 billion annually, according to the World Bank. A recent UN Women survey found that most Afghans oppose the bans.
'This is most clear regarding the de facto authorities' policies towards Afghan women,' she said. 'A generation is at serious risk of being lost at a huge long-term cost to the country.'
Also taking the floor at the Council, Hanifa Girowal, Vice President of the Afghan group Women's Rights First, described the Taliban's policies as 'gender persecution' and 'gender apartheid.'
The UN has provided nearly $13 billion in humanitarian and basic needs assistance since 2021, much of it delivered despite restrictions and with strengthened safeguards to prevent diversion.
Yet humanitarian assistance is under strain, Ms. Otunbayeva cautioned, with international funding cut by nearly 50 percent this year.
'These cuts are partly the result of Afghanistan's anti-women policies,' she said, adding that the enforcement of bans on Afghan women working for NGOs and the UN has already hindered relief efforts, including after recent earthquakes.
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