Will the UN Pull Out of Afghanistan?

Burqa-clad women walk on a street in Ghazni City, in Ghazni province, Afghanistan, November 15, 2021. © 2021 HECTOR RETAMAL-AFP via Getty Images

So many decisions are difficult in Afghanistan, but the choice the UN is now facing there may be the toughest yet.

Following the Taliban edict earlier this month barring local women from working for the global body, UN officials reportedly may be considering taking the “heartbreaking” decision to pull the UN out of the country.

The UN currently employs some 600 Afghan women, along with 2,700 Afghan men. All 3,300 have stayed home since April 12.

The UN mission in Afghanistan is conducting an “operational review” until May 5. The official line is that they are, “planning for all possible outcomes.”

The UN’s dilemma is grim.

On the one hand, as UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in a recent statement, the Taliban’s move to ban Afghan women from working with the UN is a “violation of the inalienable fundamental human rights of women.”

Guterres also emphasized how female staff members are essential for UN operations in the country, “including in the delivery of life-saving assistance.” 

Keeping the UN mission in Afghanistan and trying to work under such discriminatory rules that tie one hand behind your back would mean succumbing to the Taliban’s extremist ideology.

On the other hand, pulling out of Afghanistan would have grave consequences.

19.9 million people – that’s nearly half the population – face what the World Food Program calls “acute food insecurity.” 6 million face “emergency-level food insecurity.” Afghanistan is home to one of the world’s largest aid operations.

What would happen to people already on the edge of survival if the UN left? The Taliban’s restrictions on women have been impeding delivery of life-saving assistance, as HRW has noted since their takeover in 2021, but might things not get even worse?

The UN is not alone in confronting these decisions, of course. Aid agencies providing assistance have been hit hard by an earlier Taliban edict banning women from working at non-governmental organizations.

The UN and other humanitarian agencies are all facing terrible choices.

I don’t know what the UN will decide, but one thing is completely clear to me: responsibility for this awful situation rests with the Taliban and its repression of women. – Human Rights Watch