International Women’s Day was celebrated on Wednesday by only about 20 women in the capital, Kabul. They lined up in what is a rare event in Afghanistan these days – a protest. Here they asked the international community to protect the Afghans.

– The time has come for the UN to take clear and serious decisions regarding the fate of the people, said one of the protesters, according to the AFP news agency.

Roza Otunbajeva is the UN special envoy to Afghanistan and leads the UN mission UNAMA. She thinks the Taliban have made the country the worst in the world when it comes to women’s rights.

– It has been painful to witness the methodical, thoughtful and systematic attempts to push Afghan women and girls out of the public sphere, she said in a statement about March 8.

– Self-harm

UNAMA believes that the Taliban’s line of oppression of women is extremely self-defeating at a time when Afghanistan is facing one of the greatest humanitarian and economic crises in the world.

The Taliban ensured that women were excluded from large parts of working life, with the exception of certain important sectors, such as the health system.

Women are also not allowed to visit parks, amusement parks, gymnasiums or bathhouses. They were ordered to cover themselves when they went out, preferably with the covering burqa, which also hides the face.

But the most serious intervention is that girls and women can no longer continue their studies beyond primary school.

Not recognized

Some women have demonstrated against the measures, risking arrest and harassment, but gatherings are usually quickly dispersed by Taliban security forces.

No country has so far recognized the Taliban regime as the legitimate authorities of the country. More than half of the country’s 38 million people lack food and are at risk of starvation, and nearly four million children are malnourished, according to aid organizations.

The country now receives much less foreign aid than before, and it has also lost access to large sums of money overseas that have now been seized by the United States.

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