UNITED NATIONS
\nThe United Nations issued a new report detailing concerns about the human rights situation in Afghanistan, specifically focusing on the limited rights women are awarded under Taliban rule.
\nAmong those whose working lives have been upended, the Taliban \u201cbanned\u201d approximately 400 women workers at a pine nut processing from the workplace and dismissed another 200 at a power plant, the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in its quarterly report on the human rights situation.
\nThe officials reportedly stated that \u201cit was inappropriate for an unmarried woman to work.\u201d Many women were also not allowed to board buses or go to work because they were unmarried or because they did not have a \u2018mahram\u2019 to accompany them in public.
\nThe report also noted that several women were arbitrarily arrested in Kabul and other locations for \u201cnot wearing proper hijab\u201d. Most were released after their \u2018mahrams\u2019 signed a guarantee that they will adhere to the hijab decree in the future. \u201cThe measures taken by the de facto (Taliban) authorities contradicts the hijab decree itself,\u201d UNAMA said.
\n\u201cFor a first violation of the decree, a warning is to be issued to the individual\u2019s mahram (at the place of residence), for a second violation, the individual\u2019s mahram is to be summoned, for a third violation, the individual\u2019s mahram may be imprisoned for up to three days and for a fourth violation, the individual\u2019s mahram is to be brought before the de facto court for further action.\u201d
\nUNAMA further noted that the de facto authorities continued to infringe the right to freedom of expression by limiting the opportunity to seek, receive and impart information and ideas.
\nOn 14 December, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education issued a letter instructing all universities and private education institutions to remove books which are considered against the laws of Hanafi jurisprudence.
\nThis includes books relating to Shi\u2019a beliefs, political parties and materials authored by individuals associated with the elected Government the Taliban deposed, the report stated. In further examples, four women\u2019s rights activists and three staff of a radio station were arrested between September and December simply for doing their jobs.
\nAlthough five of them were released, one rights activist remains in detention and one journalist was sentenced to a year in prison. The report notes that at least 11 people were killed and a further 51 wounded by unexploded ordnance between October and December 2023. Forty-nine of the 62 victims were children (41 boys and eight girls).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
UNITED NATIONS The United Nations issued a new report detailing concerns about the human rights situation in Afghanistan, specifically focusing on the limited rights women are awarded under Taliban rule. Among those whose working lives have been upended, the Taliban \u201cbanned\u201d approximately 400 women workers at a pine nut processing from the workplace and dismissed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":382681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-382662","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n