Taliban bars women from working with UN

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers banned female Afghan employees of the United Nations from working in the country Tuesday, putting millions of vulnerable households that rely on the global body's humanitarian operations at additional risk as the hardliners continue their systematic obliteration of women's rights.

The U.N. asked all Afghan staff to halt work for two days, to give it time to communicate with the Taliban and seek clarity on the new ruling, U.N. sources told CBS News correspondent Pamela Falk.

Barring women from working for the United Nations was just the latest move by the Taliban undermining humanitarian organizations' capacity to carry out vital aid work in the country, which was plunged into a grave humanitarian crisis after the Islamic extremist group retook control in the summer of 2021.

It will also have a significant impact on the U.N. staff themselves, who are part of the dwindling female workforce in the country.

The circumstances in Afghanistan have been called the world's most severe humanitarian crisis, with 28.3 million people in need of aid to survive. But the U.N. Office for Coordination of humanitarian affairs says less than 5% of the funding required to meet the immediate needs of Afghans has been donated, making it the world's lowest-funded aid operation.

Of the 28.3 million people in need, 23% are women and 54 % are children, and given the strict rules under the Taliban on gender segregation, female aid workers have played a crucial role in reaching vulnerable, female-headed households.

Since taking power back in August 2021, the Taliban government has methodically reimposed the severe restrictions on women and girls that it enforced during its previous reign, which ended with the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Last year the Taliban banned women from working in non-governmental organizations and barred girls from attending universities and even secondary schools after the age of about 12.