Reports say that the UN has told all of its employees not to come to work for 48 hours.

A UN spokesman said that the Taliban have told Afghan women who work for the UN that they can't do their jobs anywhere in Afghanistan.

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Stephane Dujarric said that this was the latest example of a "worrying trend" that was making it harder for aid groups to work in Afghanistan, where more than half of the people need help.

Antonio Guterres, the Secretary-General of the UN, said that any ban on Afghan women working for the UN in their country would be "unacceptable and, frankly, incomprehensible."


The Taliban government and the Afghan information ministry did not respond right away when the Reuters news agency asked them for comments.


Two UN sources told Reuters that the UN asked all staff to stay home for 48 hours because they were worried about how the ban would be enforced.


"We're still trying to figure out how this change will affect our work in the country, and we're meeting with the de facto leaders again tomorrow in Kabul." "We want to find out what's going on," Dujarric said. "As of now, we don't have anything in writing."

The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) was worried earlier on Tuesday that female staff in the province of Nangarhar in the east were not allowed to go to work.

"National UN staff, both men and women, won't come to UN offices for 48 hours because of a threat to enforce a ban on female national staff," a senior UN official told Reuters, referring to the capital of Nangarhar, Jalalabad.


The UN offices in Afghanistan are usually closed on Friday and Saturday, so staff wouldn't come back until at least Sunday.


The Taliban government, which took over when the US and its allies left Afghanistan after 20 years of war, says it respects women's rights based on its understanding of Islamic law.


Since toppling the government in Kabul that was backed by the West, the Taliban have made it harder for women to participate in public life. For example, they have stopped women from going to college and have closed most high schools for girls.

In December, the Taliban stopped most women who worked for NGOs from working. Aid workers say this has made it harder to reach women who need help and could cause donors to stop giving money.

SOURCE: NEWS AGENCIES