Afghan Women Still Barred From UN Offices One Year After Ban

Afghan women working with the United Nations have continued serving communities throughout the past 12 months, even while being kept away from offices and other UN facilities.

One year has passed since Afghanistan's de facto authorities strengthened a ban preventing Afghan women staff and contractors from entering United Nations premises across the country. The restriction remains firmly in place, creating a situation found nowhere else in the world and marking the first time in the UN's 80-year history that women have been denied access to its workplaces simply because of their gender.

Women Continue Their Essential Work Despite Severe Restrictions

Afghan women working with the United Nations have continued serving communities throughout the past 12 months, even while being kept away from offices and other UN facilities. Their work has helped grassroots women's organizations remain active, connected women with livelihood opportunities, strengthened communities facing climate-related pressures and delivered healthcare, financial assistance, household supplies and psychosocial support to people living through deep hardship.

Their determination has kept vital services moving, yet working under these conditions places unnecessary pressure on employees and weakens the wider humanitarian response. Women and girls often need support that can only be safely and appropriately provided by female personnel who understand their language, culture, concerns and daily realities. Preventing those workers from entering UN premises makes it harder to plan programmes, coordinate assistance and reach families who may already struggle to access help.

A Ban That Harms Families, Communities and Afghanistan's Future

The workplace restriction forms part of a much wider system of rules limiting Afghan women's education, employment, movement and participation in public life. Each restriction affects individual freedom, while their combined impact reaches far beyond women themselves because households lose income, children lose opportunities and communities lose experienced teachers, healthcare workers, aid professionals and local leaders.

Afghanistan's economic and social development cannot move forward when half of its population is pushed out of education, employment and public decision-making. Families facing poverty and humanitarian need carry an even heavier burden when women cannot earn money, receive training, travel freely or contribute their knowledge to rebuilding their communities.

The United Nations says the ban violates the principles of equality and human rights written into the UN Charter. It also undermines the organization's ability to carry out its responsibilities in Afghanistan, where women personnel are essential for reaching female beneficiaries in ways that respect cultural expectations and protect privacy, dignity and safety.

The UN Renews Its Call for Equal and Unhindered Access

The United Nations has again called on the de facto authorities to immediately lift the restriction and allow Afghan women to enter offices, field locations and every other place where their work is required. This call includes women employed by the UN, its partner organizations and non-governmental groups delivering humanitarian and development assistance.

Full, equal and unrestricted participation is not an optional addition to humanitarian work in Afghanistan. It is essential for ensuring that assistance reaches everyone who needs it. The message from the United Nations remains clear: support for Afghan women and girls must be delivered by women, for women, and female personnel must be allowed to perform their duties without barriers based on gender.