The U.N. Security Council has unanimously approved a resolution calling on Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers to swiftly reverse their harsh restrictions on women and girls.
The unanimous 15-0 vote, with the United States, Russia and China all in favor, was a sign of the widespread global concerns over the Taliban’s actions which range from very severely restricting education to banning women from most jobs, public spaces and gyms.
The council condemned the Taliban’s ban on women working for the U.N., a decision the resolution calls unprecedented in the history of the United Nations.”
The Security Council never considered sanctions against the Taliban but the strong rebuke is a blow to the prestige of Afghanistan’s rulers, who are trying get credibility on the global stage.
When the Taliban seized power in August 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war, they initially promised a more moderate rule than during their first stint in power from 1996 to 2001.
But there has been a growing international outcry as Taliban leaders have gradually re-imposed their severe interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, on women and girls.
During the 20 years after the Taliban were ousted in 2001 for harboring al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, schools and universities were opened for girls and women entered the workforce and politics, and became judges, ministers and professors.
It calls on the Taliban to swiftly restore their access to education, employment, freedom of movement and equal participation in public life.
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