The United Nations is ready to take the “heartbreaking” decision to pull out of Afghanistan in May if it can’t persuade the Taliban to let local women work for the organization, The Associated Press (AP) reported on April 18, citing the head of the U.N. Development Program. 

U.N. officials are negotiating with the Afghan government in the hope that it will make exceptions to an edict this month barring local women from U.N. work, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner told The Associated Press.

“It is fair to say that where we are right now is the entire United Nations system having to take a step back and reevaluating its ability to operate there,” said Steiner.  “But it’s not about negotiating fundamental principles, human rights.”

The UNDP reportedly said Tuesday that it “reaffirms its long-standing commitment to stay and deliver for the people of Afghanistan.”  UN Secretary-General’s spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said that the United Nations continues “to push back on this counterproductive, to say the least, edict by the authorities.”

The Taliban have allowed Afghan women to engage in some work, Steiner said, and a U.N. report released Tuesday shows that the country desperately needs more women working, with its economy flailing.

The Associated Press notes that the Taliban takeover has been accompanied by some very modest signs of economic recovery.  There has been some increase in exports, some exchange rate stabilization and less inflation.  But gross domestic product, the sum of all goods and services produced within Afghanistan’s borders, is expected to be outstripped by population growth, meaning that per capita income will decline from US$359 in 2022 to US$345 in 2024, the report says.

Some of those economic problems are due to Taliban policies keeping most women out of the workplace, Steiner said.  Those economic problems mean more need in the country, but the U.N. has decided that human rights are non-negotiable and it will reduce its presence in May if the Taliban do not relent.

Despite initial promises of a more moderate rule than during their previous stint in power in the 1990s, the Taliban have imposed harsh measures since taking over the country in 2021 as U.S. and NATO forces were pulling out of Afghanistan after two decades of war, The Associated Press reports.

This month the Taliban took a step further in the restrictive measures they have imposed on women and said that female Afghan staffers employed with the U.N. mission can no longer report for work.

“This is a very fundamental moment that we’re approaching,” Steiner said.  “And obviously our hope and expectation is that there will be some common sense prevailing.”

The 3,300 Afghans employed by the U.N. — 2,700 men and 600 women — have stayed home since April 12 but continue to work and will be paid, Dujarric has said.  The U.N.’s 600 international staff, including 200 women, is reportedly not affected by the Taliban ban.

No country has recognized the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan, and the country’s seat at the U.N. is held by the former government of President Ashraf Ghani.