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 When one hurts or kills a women
one hurts or kills hummanity and is an antrocitie.
Gino d'Artali
and: My mother (1931-1997) always said to me <Mi figlio, non esistono notizie <vecchie> perche puoi imparare qualcosa da qualsiasi notizia.> Translated: <My son, there is no such thing as so called 'old' news because you can learn something from any news.>
Gianna d'Artali.

Taliban bars women aid workers
UN News - Sept 12, 2025
{Afghanistan: Lifesaving services cut as Taliban bars women aid workers
Women and girls cross the Islam Qala border, into Afghanistan. The ongoing humanitarian response to the devastating Afghanistan earthquake disaster continued on Friday, although essential services have been cut for operational reasons following reinforced Taliban restrictions on women working with the UN, the global body said. “All of us at the United Nations are suffering from a reinforcement of the ban on females working with us…We are simply unable to operate without females,” said Arafat Jamal, UN refugee agency (UNHCR) Representative to Afghanistan, a day after agencies warned that the de facto authorities’ measures have impacted life-saving assistance for hundreds of thousands of people. Last Sunday, de facto Afghan security forces prevented national female staff members and contractors of the UN from entering the global body’s compounds in Kabul, the UN Mission in the country, UNAMA, said in a statement on Thursday.
Centres closed
And in light of the restrictions, on Tuesday, UNHCR temporarily closed its cash and support centres for vulnerable Afghans, both at the border and in areas where so many people have been returning from Iran, Pakistan and elsewhere since the start of the year. The registration process involves providing biometric data, along with screening and interviews – work that would be “entirely impossible without Afghan female workers”, the UNHCR official stressed, noting that more than one in two returnees are women. “This was an operational decision,” Mr. Jamal continued. “It is not a decision taken to punish anyone or to make a statement, but simply it demonstrates that we cannot work without female workers in certain circumstances.” Since the start of the year, some 2.6 million Afghans have returned from neighbouring countries – “many not by choice”, UNHCR said. Mr. Jamal noted that the pace of returns continues to surge, with nearly 100,000 people crossing back from Pakistan in the first week of September alone, “stretching our capacities and the capacities of this country to the limit”. Aftershocks reverberate
Echoing those concerns, the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) warned that Afghanistan is still reeling from the 6.0 magnitude earthquake that struck Kunar and Nangarhar provinces on 31 August, followed by multiple severe aftershocks. At least 1,172 children have died, more than half the entire death toll, said UNICEF Country Representative in Afghanistan, Dr. Tajudeen Oyewale. Briefing journalists in Geneva via videolink, Dr Oyewale described meeting young victims of the disaster in Machkandol in Nangahar, three girls and a young boy rescued from the emergency. “For the girls it was even more sobering; they were lost; they have lost their families, their homes have been destroyed,” he said. “The family livestock have died. And for these young girls and this young boy, the future is completely bleak.” The provinces impacted by the earthquake are mountainous and extremely remote, the UNICEF official continued.
Jammed dirt roads
“It is filled with steep terrain, difficult navigation…it took us about three and a half hours’ drive, 40 minutes of which was on paved road and the rest was through rough mountain dirt roads, a lot of turns with jammed with oncoming vehicles and especially with falling rocks on the road.” Humanitarians warn that the earthquake has compounded Afghanistan’s existing acute problems. In total, the crisis has claimed more than 2,164 lives, at least 3,428 people have been injured and at least 6,700 homes have either been destroyed or badly damaged. “Behind these numbers are children left standing alone in the rubble and families torn apart in the blink of an eye… UNICEF is literally going the extra mile and doing whatever it takes to reach these children and families with the support they need,” Dr Oyewale insisted.} Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165832


New restrictions on women nationals working for UN
UN News - Sept 11, 2025
{Afghanistan: New restrictions on women nationals working for UN, put aid efforts at risk
The United Nations in Afghanistan called on Thursday for the de facto Taliban authorities to lift restrictions barring women national staff from entering its premises. These measures are putting life-saving humanitarian assistance and other essential services for hundreds of thousands of people affected by a recent deadly earthquake at risk, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) warned in a statement. On Sunday, the de facto security forces prevented women Afghan staff members and contractors from entering UN compounds in the capital, Kabul.
More offices affected
This was extended to field offices across the country, following written or verbal notifications from Taliban leadership. Furthermore, security forces are visibly present at the entrances of UN premises in Kabul, Herat, and Mazar-i-Sharif to enforce the measure. “This is particularly concerning in view of continuing restrictions on the rights of Afghan women and girls,” the statement said. Since returning to power four years ago, the Taliban have issued numerous edicts impacting women’s rights such as prohibiting girls from attending secondary school and banning women from most jobs, including working with non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Travel also curtailed
The UN has also received reports of security forces attempting to bar women national staff from travelling to field locations, including to support women and girls as part of the response to the earthquake that struck eastern Afghanistan last month. They are also being blocked from accessing operational sites for Afghan returnees from Iran and Pakistan.
Support for returnees halted
Since January, over 2.4 million people have returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan from neighbouring countries, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. As a result of the restrictions, UNHCR has temporarily suspended activities at sites where returnees receive cash support and other assistance so that they can rebuild their lives after years of displacement and exile. “This decision was taken for operational reasons, as it is not possible to interview and collect information for the 52 per cent of returnee women, without female staff,” the agency said in a statement posted on social media.
Lift the restrictions
The UN is engaging the de facto authorities and calls for the immediate lifting of restrictions to continue critical support to the Afghan people, noting that the current actions disregard “previously communicated arrangements”. “Such arrangements have enabled the United Nations to deliver critical assistance across the country, through a culturally sensitive and principled approach ensuring the delivery of assistance by women, for women,” the statement said. In the interim, UNAMA and UN agencies, funds and programmes in Afghanistan, have implemented operational adjustments to protect staff and assess options for continuing their essential work. The statement concluded by recalling that the prohibition on the movement of UN staff and the obstruction of UN operations is a breach of international rules on the privileges and immunities of the organization’s personnel. } Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165823

UN News - Sept 8, 2025
{Afghanistan quake: ‘Communities are struggling with basic survival’
People who lost their homes in the earthquake which struck eastern Afghanistan are temporarily living in tents. A senior UN aid coordination official in Afghanistan on Monday urged the international community to respond to earthquake victims’ urgent need for support “not only to survive today, but to have the strength to rebuild their lives tomorrow.” Briefing correspondents in New York via video link, Shannon O’Hara spoke from Jalalabad on the conditions in Afghanistan just days after the magnitude 6 earthquake and its devastating aftershocks. “We saw families whose lives had been shattered just within a few minutes,” the head of strategy for OCHA in Afghanistan said.
Left with nothing
“The earthquake had destroyed their homes, their farms and their livelihoods, leaving them with absolutely nothing.” OCHA has managed to reach 49 damaged villages in the Nangarhar, Kunar and nearby affected provinces in eastern Afghanistan. As humanitarian workers struggle to reach more regions, current reports show that nearly 40,000 people have been impacted by the earthquake, while over 5,000 homes have been destroyed.
Aid workers face challenges
“Even before the earthquake, these villages were difficult to reach,” said Ms. O’Hara. “Now, with the earthquake, it takes extraordinary effort to get there.” A narrow, one-way road on the mountainside which was “blocked by large rocks from landslides and many vehicles trying to get up and down the valley” is the only way to get to affected areas from Jalalabad, said Ms. O’Hara. A 100-kilometre drive took Ms. O’Hara and her team more than six and a half hours. To reach victims, first response teams have to drive – and often travel for hours on foot.
‘The heaviest burden’
Emergency responders are prioritising aid to women, children, and locals with disabilities. “In Afghanistan, in recent years, women and girls have been pushed to the very margins of society and survival,” said Ms. O’Hara. “We know from previous earthquakes and other crises that women and girls always bear the heaviest burden.” A estimate from UN reproductive health agency, UNFPA, shows that 11,600 pregnant women have been affected by the destruction – in a country that already has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in region. OCHA is working to ensure that “that women are represented in health teams and more women aid workers are supporting distributions, along with nutrition, psychosocial and other counseling services,” said Ms. O’Hara.
Alarming potential for disease outbreak
The natural catastrophe has resulted in families living without clean water and sanitation in tents or “under open skies, exposed to rain and cold,” said Ms. O’Hara. “With cholera endemic in the region and initial assessments indicating that 92 per cent of these communities are practicing open defecation, the potential for a cholera outbreak is alarming,” she continued. While UN agencies are distributing meals and sanitation kits, efforts need to be scaled up. “The affected communities are struggling with basic survival,” she stressed.
Urgent action needed
So far, 43,000 victims have received ready-to-eat meals and UN agencies are also providing tents, blankets and sanitation kits to assist families. But humanitarian efforts risk being disrupted if heavy rain floods IDP sites or if potential aftershocks bring more landslides. Snow from the approaching winter season is also expected to block vital roads. “If we don't act now, these communities may not survive the coming winter,” said Ms. O’Hara. “Additional funding is urgently needed.” OCHA has already released $10 million for life-saving supplies and an emergency response plan is currently being finalized. “Without immediate support the weeks ahead risk compounding this tragedy with preventable disease outbreaks, further displacement and additional loss of life.”
Fresh supplies land in Kabul
A new consignment of more than 35 metric tonnes of life-saving medical supplies landed in Kabul on Monday, to enhance the World Health Organization’s (WHO) emergency response. WHO has now prepositioned and delivered nearly 80 metric tonnes of emergency health supplies to the country since the disaster. The newly arrived cargo, mobilised through WHO’s logistics hub in Dubai, includes trauma and emergency surgery kits, primary health care kits, noncommunicable disease kits and essential medicines. These supplies will be dispatched to health facilities and mobile health teams in the hardest-hit areas, following the ongoing needs assessments.} Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165801


Afghan quake survivors helped
Zan Times - Sept 5, 2025 - by Shams Rahman
{‘All I have left is this cloth’: Afghan quake survivors still waiting for help
This report has been published in partnership with the Guardian.
In the shattered houses of Wadeer village in Afghanistan’s Kunar province, survivors of Sunday’s devastating earthquake that has killed more than 2,200 people say they are still waiting for the most basic help: food and shelter. The 6.0-magnitude quake, which struck eastern Afghanistan at about midnight, also injured more than 3,600, according to Taliban officials. And across Kunar province, more than 5,700 homes have been destroyed. The district of Nurgal, in the west of Kunar province, where the village of Wadeer lies, was the epicentre of the devastation, with 1,000 people confirmed dead and 2,500 injured. The Taliban, which took control of the country in 2021, have urged charities, business owners and ordinary citizens to contribute to their response. Bank account numbers were circulated online by Taliban spokesmen with a promise that donations would be handled with “transparency”. A Taliban government spokesperson, Zabihullah Mujahid, says rescue efforts are continuing. In areas unreachable by helicopters, commando units have reportedly been airdropped to carry the wounded to safety.
But on the ground, the gap between announcements and action is growing. Some volunteer rescue teams have reached the village of Wadeer and mobile health units have been dispatched, but residents say the support remains insufficient. Damage to roads by the earthquake and recent rains have made access even more difficult. In other villages, some survivors are still waiting to get the bodies of their loved ones out of the rubble. “We urgently need tents and food. People have lost their homes; they don’t even have the means to cook. And we need more doctors. There are too few medical teams, and people are still buried,” a village elder in Wadeer tells the Guardian. “We are still sitting under the sun because there is no tent,” says a grandmother in Wadeer, who is with her two grandchildren. “If there were a tent, I could at least keep them in the shade.” She says her daughter-in-law and husband were taken to a hospital by helicopter, but she has no idea where. No one has returned with information or aid. Nearby, another woman who lost more than 30 relatives says: “I lost my husband, my sons, my grandchildren. Everything. All I have left is this cloth. I don’t even have money to buy a paracetamol.” Aid agencies have said female survivors of the earthquake cannot easily access aid or medical support and that in conservative provinces such as Kunar, it is difficult for a single woman to ask for help from unrelated men. Women’s autonomy and movement are heavily restricted under the Taliban, including a ban on women speaking in public. Despite being one of the most-affected districts, Nurgal has only one functioning hospital, which cannot handle the overwhelming number of casualties. Most of those rescued so far are transferred to the Afghan capital, Kabul, or to the neighbouring Nangarhar province via helicopter for treatment.
International organisations are struggling to scale up relief efforts not just due to the terrain, but also because of severe funding shortfalls, many of which stem from the broader collapse of donor support for Afghanistan. “The situation on the ground is critical,” says the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC). “Entire communities are in urgent need of life-saving assistance. Local resources are stretched to the breaking point, and lack of funding is limiting the scale and speed of the humanitarian response.” The NRC says families in Kunar province have been sleeping in overcrowded tents, some sheltering up to 100 women and children with no access to toilets or clean water. Since February 2025, 422 health centres across Afghanistan are reported to have closed after US aid cuts. In eastern Afghanistan alone, 80 health centres have shut down, including at least 15 in Kunar and 29 in Nangarhar, leaving quake survivors even more vulnerable. The NRC says its funding portfolio is 60% of what it was in 2023, significantly limiting its ability to respond to growing humanitarian needs. The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration, which helps displaced people in Afghanistan, says funding cuts this year have reduced warehouse capacity and the organisation’s presence on the ground, forcing most supplies to be dispatched from Kabul, which further adds to delays and logistical costs. The World Health Organization and other agencies have deployed emergency health kits, mobile teams and additional ambulances to the region. Yet for many in remote areas, access to care remains impossible. With roads blocked and too few helicopters, villagers must wait, hoping for help to arrive. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs says 25 inter-agency teams have reached some affected districts, but admitted that access to the worst-hit valleys remains patchy, and weather conditions have further delayed progress. The UN has allocated $10m (£7.4m) in emergency funds, $5m from the Central Emergency Response Fund and another $5m from the Afghanistan Humanitarian Fund. But aid officials say this is a fraction of what is needed. For now, in villages such as Wadeer, people sit under scraps of cloth or plastic sheeting, mourning their dead and fearing what comes next.
Kreshma Fakhri and Freshta Ghani contributed reporting.} Source: https://zantimes.com/2025/09/05/all-i-have-left-is-this-cloth-afghan-quake-survivors-still-waiting-for-help/

Jinha - Womens News Center - Sept 4, 2025 - By BEHARAN LEHİB
{UN official: Afghanistan’s humanitarian crisis demands urgent response
UNHCR urged urgent aid after Afghanistan’s deadly quake, saying women and children suffer most amid collapsed infrastructure and critical shortages of shelter, healthcare, and essentials.
News Center - A 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan in late August, followed by a series of aftershocks that killed and injured thousands, triggering a humanitarian catastrophe. Rabab Bassam, Head of External Relations at the UNHCR, said on Wednesday, September 4, that the earthquake was “catastrophic by all measures,” leaving behind a massive humanitarian tragedy. She emphasized that the situation now requires “urgent and intensified intervention, as we are facing a deepening humanitarian crisis.” She explained that the conditions in the affected areas are dire, with women and children disproportionately impacted. Homes have been destroyed, health facilities disabled, and supply routes blocked by landslides and road closures, resulting in acute shortages of shelter, healthcare, clean water, sanitation, and food. According to Bassam, UNHCR is working along two parallel tracks: the first focuses on meeting urgent needs—search and rescue, medical care, and emergency shelter—while the second supports returnees with reception, screening, reintegration assistance, and temporary housing. She stressed the urgent need for international support to bridge funding gaps and ensure aid delivery. “We call on the international community to provide immediate assistance to prevent further tragedies, especially as Afghanistan is already facing multiple crises, including severe drought and the mass return of millions of Afghans from neighboring countries,” she said. The death toll from the earthquake in Kunar province has risen to 1,411, with more than 3,000 injured, according to Afghanistan’s Disaster Management Authority, which warned the numbers are expected to rise as rescue operations continue amid ongoing aftershocks. Thousands of homes have collapsed, particularly in mountainous and remote areas where rescue teams face major challenges reaching survivors due to rugged terrain and blocked roads.} Source: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/un-official-afghanistan-s-humanitarian-crisis-demands-urgent-response-37482


Afghan earthquake survivors
Al Jazeera - Sept 3, 2025 - By Abdurahman Sharif
{After the quake, Afghanistan’s children face a crisis within a crisis
Aid cuts have shuttered clinics and stalled relief; restore funding now to save lives. As a ruthless magnitude 6.0 earthquake ripped through eastern Afghanistan this week, it flattened entire mountain villages and shattered the fragile lives of thousands, particularly children, who were already grappling with soaring humanitarian needs and funding cuts. This earthquake, centred in the provinces of Kunar and Nangarhar, has already killed more than 1,400 people and the number is expected to rise, while aftershocks continue to wreak havoc. Thousands more are injured, with entire villages levelled in remote, mountainous terrain where roads are blocked, and rescue teams – including Save the Children mobile health staff – are battling to reach those in need. But this is not just another natural disaster – it is a collision of disasters for Afghanistan, where nearly 23 million people – or just less than half of the population – need humanitarian assistance this year. More than 9 million people will face acute food insecurity, according to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, before October. At least 2 million people have been forced to return to Afghanistan this year alone from Iran and Pakistan. The result is catastrophic – and it is children who bear the brunt. Such natural disasters demand a rapid and robust humanitarian response. Children need immediate medical attention, clean water, shelter and psychosocial support to recover from trauma. Yet these essential operations are being constrained – curtailed by aid cuts inflicted upon the global humanitarian system. This year, international donors have cut foreign aid budgets. These decisions have come at exactly the wrong time. About 126 programmes run by Save the Children globally had been shut down by cuts in aid as of May, affecting about 10.3 million people. These are programmes that support millions of children in conflict zones, refugee camps and disaster-prone areas. In Afghanistan, these cuts have meant less staff to respond when disaster strikes and to respond to a disaster such as this earthquake. Medical clinics have been closed, so there are fewer facilities to treat the injured, and the health facilities that are still open are desperately over-stretched, even before this disaster happened. Health services in Afghanistan cannot absorb blows like this earthquake. The effect of aid cuts in Afghanistan has been acutely felt by Save the Children. Save the Children lost funding for 14 health clinics in northern and eastern Afghanistan, although we are using alternative short-term funding to keep them open currently. The loss of these clinics would mean 13,000 children losing access to healthcare in their villages. Earlier this year, I visited Nangarhar province, now lying devastated by the huge earthquake, and I met children and their families struggling to survive. I have seen entire health centres run by our partners shut down. Families told me what that means: Mothers unable to give birth safely, children missing critical vaccinations, and households left without hope. The scale of the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, exacerbated by aid cuts and now combined with a sudden-response scenario like the Afghan earthquake, makes for a crisis within a crisis. Aid agencies are stretched thin – or absent – due to staff layoffs and the closure of programmes and offices. This earthquake should be a clarion call – for us to reinvest in humanitarian aid, swiftly and generously. Donor governments must reverse course, unblock emergency funding, and commit to longer-term financing of child-focused services. Without immediate, sustained funding, we anticipate a rapid deterioration – children exposed to waterborne diseases, families forced into negative coping strategies like child labour or early marriage, and rising rates of malnutrition in a country where one in five children already faced crisis levels of hunger before the quake. By October this year, five million Afghan children – or about 20% of children in Afghanistan – were expected to face acute hunger, with funding cuts reducing the amount of food aid available by 40% and 420 health centres closed, removing access for three million people. Even before the aid cuts, 14 million people had limited access to healthcare. We must ensure that when disaster strikes – whether an earthquake or conflict – we have the ability to respond – and quickly. We must make sure children’s rights endure, even when budgets falter. This is a crisis compounding a crisis. We are witnessing the collapse of protective systems for children – medical, nutritional, educational, psychosocial – when they are most critical. No child should die because the world’s attention wanes or budgets shrink. The children of Afghanistan were already vulnerable to hunger, disease, poverty, and isolation, and they have now been plunged into a deeper abyss. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.} Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/9/3/after-the-quake-afghanistans-children-face-a-crisis-within-a-crisis

Jinha - Womens News Center - Sept 3, 2025 - By BEHARAN LEHİB
{Afghan earthquake survivor recounts harrowing night
A woman recounts the devastation after a 6.0-magnitude earthquake struck eastern Afghanistan on August 31, killing and injuring thousands and causing widespread destruction across the mountainous region.
Kunar — Hajira Noor, a survivor of the Kunar earthquake, recounted the horrifying scenes that claimed members of her family. She said the lack of roads and medical facilities has worsened the suffering, and aid remains scarce amid looting and delays in evacuating the injured. The 6.0-magnitude earthquake, which struck late at night on August 31, devastated the provinces of Kunar, Laghman, and Jalalabad, causing widespread damage to homes and farmland in the affected provinces. In Jalalabad, several villages in the Darai Nur area suffered severe destruction, including the deaths of four children buried under collapsed houses. Laghman province reported mostly material losses, with no fatalities. The worst devastation occurred in Kunar, where the Chapa Dara and Mazar Dara districts were flattened. Residents continued searching the rubble for bodies two days after the disaster. Taliban statistics indicate that more than 1,000 people were killed and approximately 2,500 injured. Kunar, known for its mountainous terrain and the fast-flowing Kunar River, faces constant challenges due to its geography, which becomes particularly perilous during natural disasters. Hajira Noor described the night of the earthquake: “It was midnight when I heard a terrifying sound and woke up to see the room collapsing. I grabbed my two-year-old daughter and fled with my husband. By the time we got outside, our house had completely fallen. My elderly parents-in-law in the next room couldn’t escape; rescue teams recovered their bodies the next day after hours of searching.” She added that some families lost all members, while others had only one or two survivors. “Every day, we bury our loved ones—mostly children, women, and the elderly who couldn’t escape,” she said. Asked about aid, she simply replied, “None.” Noor explained that the affected valleys lack proper roads and healthcare centers, severely hampering relief efforts, particularly for injured women who face extreme difficulty accessing treatment. Helicopters are often required to deliver aid. She warned that the humanitarian situation is dire, with ongoing looting of aid supplies causing significant delays in evacuating the injured. “The severe shortage of resources threatens lives continuously, making every passing moment a harsh test of survival,” Noor said.} Source: https://jinhaagency.com/en/actual/afghan-earthquake-survivor-recounts-harrowing-night-37478


Earthquake Herat 2023
UN News - Sept. 1, 2025
{Aid effort underway after Afghanistan quake ‘wipes out’ villages
Destruction from the deadly earthquake that hit Herat province in October 2023.
After a magnitude six earthquake struck remote areas of eastern Afghanistan overnight reportedly killing hundreds and wiping out villages, UN chief UN António Guterres on Monday pledged to “spare no effort” in helping those affected. “I stand in full solidarity with the people of Afghanistan after the devastating earthquake that hit the country earlier today,” the Secretary-General said in an online message. “I extend my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured. The @UN team in Afghanistan is mobilized and will spare no effort to assist those in need in the affected areas.” On the ground, several UN agencies reported devastation across four eastern provinces of Afghanistan including Nangarhar and Kunar, where staff and humanitarian partners are already supporting relief efforts.
Trapped inside
Witnesses reported that the earthquake happened at around midnight local time, heightening fears that many Afghans may still be trapped in the rubble of their homes. The tremor’s epicentre was eight kilometres (six miles) underground, causing buildings to shake in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and in Pakistan’s capital city, Islamabad, according to reports. Among those providing assistance are the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the UN aid coordination office (OCHA) the UN World Health Organization (WHO) and many more. “As reports of deaths and injuries from the #earthquake in eastern region of #Afghanistan continue to emerge, @WHOAfghanistan teams are on the ground in hospitals and health facilities, supporting the treatment of the wounded and assessing urgent health needs,” the UN health agency said. “We are actively delivering essential medicines and supplies and deploying health teams to affected areas to help #SaveLives.”
How the UN helps
United Nations teams are on the ground in more than 160 countries, working with the authorities and partners on joint programmes in communities to promote climate action, food security, gender equality and safety of civilians. The UN has been present in Afghanistan since 1949; the global body’s work there is driven by the Resident Coordinator, Indrika Ratwatte, as head of a country team which includes around 20 UN agencies and international organizations such as the World Bank and Asian Development Bank.} Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165752


Forcedly returned refugees
UN News - August 29, 2025
{Despite Taliban ban, over 90 per cent of Afghans support girls’ right to learn
Afghan women with their families arrive from Pakistan with their belongings at the Torkham crossing point, facing a bleak future where women and girls' rights have become severely restricted. Despite the ongoing ban on girls’ secondary education, more than 90 per cent of Afghan adults support girls’ right to be in class, according to a new alert from the UN’s gender equality agency, UN Women. Four years after the Taliban takeover in August 2021, the scale and severity of the women’s rights crisis continues to intensify. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls are prohibited to attend secondary school. Yet, in a nationwide door-to-door survey of over 2,000 Afghans, more than nine in 10 supported girls’ right to learn.
“It is clear: Despite the existing bans, the Afghan people want their daughters to exercise their right to education,” said Sofia Calltorp, UN Women’s Chief of Humanitarian Action, at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.
'Education is the difference'
A protracted humanitarian crisis continues in Afghanistan coupled with systemic and institutionalised restrictions on women and girls’ rights. Ms. Calltorp insisted that it is more important than ever to continue investing in Afghan women’s community organizations, which offer healthcare, mental health support and a chance to connect. “In a country where half the population lives in poverty, education is the difference between despair and possibility,” she said, voicing their yearning to be back in a school environment. “This is almost always the first thing girls tell us – they are desperate to learn and just want the chance to gain an education,” said UN Women’s Special Representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson. A year after the introduction of a stricter so-called morality law codified a sweeping set of restrictions, the new alert highlights the deepening normalisation of the women’s rights crisis.
NGO work ban
The Taliban’s ban on women working for NGOs – announced nearly three years ago – continues to have a devastating impact, said UN Women. More than half of NGOs in Afghanistan report that it has affected their ability to reach women and girls with vital services. A UN Women survey conducted in July and August found that 97 per cent of Afghan women said it had negatively impacted them.} Source: https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/08/1165744

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