Femena expresses deep concern over what the recent visit by UN Under-Secretary-General Rosemary A. DiCarlo to Afghanistan signaled. Framed as a follow-up to the Doha Process, the visit prioritized unbalanced diplomatic engagement with Taliban leaders, including their self-appointed Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Interior, which she describes as “productive.” In her public summary of the visit on X, meetings with Afghan women and civil society appear almost as a footnote, absent any concrete outcomes, commitments, or enforceable guarantees.
Afghan women continue to face daily violations of the full spectrum of their rights: they are banned from most education, excluded from work and public life, and subjected to the Taliban’s Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue law, 136 edicts targeting every aspect of women’s lives, and the recently circulated criminal procedure code, which institutionalize gender-based oppression, render ordinary daily life legally punishable for women and codify extreme subordination of women under law. Women UN staff remain barred from returning to their offices, undermining the UN’s own operations and signaling tolerance of Taliban restrictions. By emphasizing cooperation on security, counter-narcotics, and operational issues while sidelining women’s rights, the UN risks normalizing oppression without securing enforceable guarantees for Afghan women. The absence of clear benchmarks and consequences has emboldened the Taliban to escalate their repression of women, treating international engagement as cost-free while systematically dismantling women’s rights.
The visit included photo opportunities with Taliban officials, with women diplomats wearing scarves, symbolically complying with the Taliban’s restrictions. Such gestures normalize Taliban authority and signal that the systematic oppression of women is tolerated in international diplomacy.
Femena stands in solidarity with Afghan women who continue to remain engaged in collective feminist resistance through civic action, education, and advocacy despite extraordinary risk. We call on the UN to take decisive, rights-based action and demand concrete guarantees from the Taliban.
Three Key Demands:
- Immediate restoration of women’s rights, including the reversal of all 136 discriminatory edicts; the lifting of the blanket ban on girls’ education and women’s employment; and the restoration of women’s full participation in public life, with clear benchmarks and consequences for non-compliance.
- Full protection and freedom for female UN staff and Afghan civil society actors, including the unconditional lifting of bans on women working with the UN and accountability measures if restrictions persist.
- Direct, flexible funding for women-led civic resistance and community initiatives, including small grants to informal groups protecting civic space, providing education, and sustaining social resilience, prioritizing Afghan women-led initiatives inside the country and in exile.
Questions for Under-Secretary-General DiCarlo
- What specific, enforceable measures is the UN taking to ensure its engagement translates into tangible improvements in Afghan women’s lives, rather than serving only as symbolic or “productive” dialogue?
- How is the UN ensuring that Afghan women are truly included as equal stakeholders, rather than appearing only in side meetings while the Taliban dominate the main agenda?
- What concrete, verifiable commitments have the Taliban made on reversing discriminatory laws and edicts, and how is the UN enforcing accountability?
- How will the UN hold the Taliban accountable for continuing to ban female UN staff from returning to work?
- What safeguards exist to prevent UN photo ops, meetings, or gestures with Taliban officials from being interpreted internally or internationally as tacit approval or normalization of gender apartheid?
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Femena Op-Ed on Meaningful Participation of Afghan Women in the Doha Process: Women’s Participation in UN Deliberations is Crucial to a Sustainable Peace in Afghanistan – South Asian Voices