By Vibhu Mishra

17 September 2025 – Afghanistan is confronting “a perfect storm” of overlapping crises, the UN’s outgoing envoy warned the Security Council on Wednesday, as an Afghan women’s rights advocate told the body that Taliban policies amount to “gender apartheid” which are suffocating a whole generation of girls.

Roza Otunbayeva, the Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, told ambassadors that while the country has seen a relative decline in armed conflict since the Taliban takeover in 2021, the humanitarian, economic and human rights situation has deteriorated significantly.

“It is an open question whether there is sufficient pragmatism among the de facto authorities [the Taliban] to manage this perfect storm of crises, or whether decisions driven by ideology will prevent sustainable solutions,” she said.

Women and girls shut out

Central to the crisis, Ms. Otunbayeva stressed, are sweeping Taliban restrictions on Afghan women and girls.

Schools for girls above grade six have now been closed for four years, costing the economy an estimated $1.4 billion annually, according to the World Bank. A recent UN Women survey found that most Afghans oppose the bans.

“This is most clear regarding the de facto authorities’ policies towards Afghan women,” she said. “A generation is at serious risk of being lost at a huge long-term cost to the country.”

‘Gender apartheid’

Also taking the floor at the Council, Hanifa Girowal, Vice President of the Afghan group Women’s Rights First, was even blunter, describing the Taliban’s policies as “gender persecution” and “gender apartheid.”

Speaking on behalf of women inside the country and in exile, she recounted the story of a young woman in Kandahar who lamented: “By now I should have completed my master’s degree and become a law professor…instead, for four long years, I have lived in uncertainty, unable to decide my own future. How much longer must I wait?”

Ms. Girowal, who was also a former deputy governor of Kabul, warned that the systematic exclusion of women and girls.

Press briefing by UN Women on urgent aid for Afghan women

Remarks by Susan Ferguson, UN Women Special Representative in Afghanistan, at the Palais des Nations in Geneva

19 September 2025

Women and girls continue to bear the brunt of the Afghanistan earthquake – one of the deadliest in the country’s recent history.

While the major aftershocks may have passed, or have mostly passed, women in affected areas are facing a long-term disaster without more urgent assistance.

Tragically, women and girls account for over half of those killed and injured and 60 per cent of those still missing.

Now, on top of their grief and loss, survivors are facing new threats, including heightened risks of violence and exploitation, and a lack of access to support and services.

As I saw when I visited a village in Kunar province last week, many families remain in tents or out in the open.

Sanitation and water infrastructure has been destroyed and there are not enough latrines for women and girls in villages or informal settlements.

This means they are having to walk further to go to the bathroom, or gather water, exposing them to the risk of violence and landmines.

The increased risk of violence carries into households, as well.

Too often there are spikes in gender-based violence following disasters, triggered by the intense pressure on communities through displacement, loss of livelihoods and more.

In the earthquake, one of the most impacted groups are women-headed households – and we know of at least 463 of these families in affected areas.

In everyday life, in this cultural context, these women already face an uphill battle every day to survive and support their families.

Now, in the disruption and chaos following the earthquake, these women will find it exponentially harder to feed their children and find a safe place to stay.

Pregnant and breastfeeding women are also affected.

They – and all women and girls – will need access to health services.

Due to the bans on women working for NGOs and studying at university, mobility restrictions imposed by the de facto authorities, and systemic discrimination, there is a serious shortage of women health workers across Afghanistan.

As highlighted in the recent Gender Alert issued by the Gender in Humanitarian Action working group in Afghanistan – of which UN Women is a co-lead – the impact on women’s livelihoods has also been devastating.

With large numbers of livestock killed or injured, many women have lost their income and can’t afford food or other basics.

It’s crucial that early recovery measures include livelihoods support.

Women are also disproportionately impacted by the earthquake when it comes to accessing humanitarian assistance.

As highlighted in a new humanitarian update released this week by UN Women, many women are still struggling to access support.

This is partly due to conservative norms, which can make it hard for them to move around independently or to find out about services available.

It also shows the crucial importance of women humanitarians, who can speak to other women about the help available and provide services, including mental health and psychosocial support, in a culturally-appropriate way.

Before I speak to that, I do want to take a moment to acknowledge that Afghan women have been present and working tirelessly on the frontlines since day one.

For example, with the support of UN Women and other UN agencies, women make up 40 per cent now of all the joint assessment teams, which have reached 134 out of 411 affected villages.

They can speak directly with affected women and girls and hear what support they need.

These teams have been going to extraordinary lengths to reach those in need, trekking for hours on foot, as many roads were damaged or blocked by landslides.

One of the women we supported on these teams described scrambling along the sides of mountains, dodging falling rocks every time there was an aftershock.

Another woman who joined these teams, again with our support, said there was no other channel for women to share their needs and concerns, as they are restricted from speaking to men.

Some women are also being deployed with mobile teams, bringing healthcare, psychosocial support and other critical services directly to women.

And they are helping to distribute aid from the UN and NGOs, including cash, blankets and through emergency hubs.

They have played a remarkable role to-date.

But we need more of them.

There are still not enough women humanitarian workers in the response.

There are many reasons for this, including an on-going lack of investment in women staff as part of existing aid budgets and the previous ban by the de facto authorities on women working for NGOs, announced in 2022, and then on the UN, announced in 2023.

At the time, UN Women committed it would not replace its women staff with male staff and we stand firmly by that commitment.

Throughout all these increasing restrictions, UN Women has remained on the ground, working with partners, to find localized solutions to support women and girls.

And we continue to demand that Afghan women working with the United Nations can continue their work without prohibitions or restrictions.

The latest DFA edict on Afghan women colleagues entering UN compounds puts at serious risk the delivery of life-saving humanitarian assistance and other essential services to women and girls affected by the earthquake.

Having women in humanitarian roles is especially vital to ensure women and girls can safely access the support they need – which must be delivered by women, for women.

There is no other option to provide principled assistance.

Without women aid workers, we simply will not be able to meet the needs of women and girls in the weeks and months ahead.

While it’s still warm in the earthquake-affected areas, winter is fast approaching.

Living conditions and humanitarian access will become even more difficult.

Which is why UN Women is appealing for two-and-a-half million US dollars to expand a six to twelve month emergency-response and recovery plan.

Under this plan, we will scale up women’s participation in this response and increase access to services, in partnership with women’s organizations.

We are partnering with five women-led and women-focused organizations at the moment to address the immediate needs of women and girls across Kunar province, including by providing:

·        Items such as blankets, clothing and cooking utensils, including supplies to cope with the winter cold;

·        Cash assistance;

·        Protection services, including mental health and psychosocial support; and by

·        Establishing safe spaces where women and girls can meet and access humanitarian support.

But we need to do more to target 30,000 individuals, primarily women and girls.

It’s important to remember that many of the women and girls currently traumatized after this earthquake have already been through significant upheaval in their lives, after returning from Iran or Pakistan.

This disaster will only compound the distress and economic pressures they were already facing.

Last week, when I was in Kunar province – one of the worst-affected areas – I sat with a group of women in an earthquake-affected village.

We met in a stiflingly hot tent with a dirt floor – soon that ground will freeze as winter approaches.

These women had fled their village in the middle of the night when the earthquake struck, walking for hours to find temporary shelter.

They told me they had lost their relatives, many still buried in the rubble.

They lost their homes. They lost their livelihoods – and their source of income.

As one woman said to me: “Now, we have nothing.”

Yet, as long as there are women humanitarians on the ground, there is hope that women like this woman will be able to access support and services.

To quote one of these aid workers: “I asked if I could be deployed there because I wanted to support women and girls.”

We must invest more in the commitment, courage and sense of community shown by Afghan women humanitarians during this disaster.

I call again on the international community to provide more urgent support – through women’s organizations – to ensure more women humanitarians are on the frontlines.

It is the only way women and girls will get the care they need and slowly begin to rebuild their lives.

Time is running out

Echoing the call for Security Council unity and action, Ms. Girowal called for setting clear benchmarks for engagement with the Taliban.

These, she said, should include reopening schools and universities for girls, restoring women’s right to work, and granting full access for UN monitors.

She also called on countries to halt forced deportations of Afghans which she said had led to persecution and even killings.

“We are running out of time,” she said. “The situation on the ground is only getting worse…but the good news is that you can do something about it.”

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Afghanistan faces ‘perfect storm’ of crises, UN warns | UN News