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Possible ban on UN’s female staff sparks widespread concern

Responding to indications by the UN in Afghanistan that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) plans to stop Afghan women from working for the organization has sparked widespread concern among the international community.
In a tweet on Wednesday, former US special envoy for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad said the IEA had to respect women’s rights to education and work in the “public and private” sectors during Doha negotiations.
He said the IEA must fulfill its commitment to the agreement.
Khalilzad also said any decision to ban women from working in UN offices is "wrong" and will increase the suffering of the Afghan people.
According to him, such actions will reduce humanitarian aid to the country and emphasized that a decision of this nature would complicate the interactions of the international community with the IEA and harm the interests of Afghanistan.
"Afghan women have the inalienable right to study and work, these rights are recognized in Islam and international conventions," Khalilzad tweeted.
Concerns were raised on Tuesday when the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) got to hear that the IEA was clamping down on its female staff.
In a tweet on Tuesday, UNAMA said its female staff in Nangarhar had been stopped from reporting for work. Reuters then reported that the instructions were applicable countrywide.
UNAMA expressed its concern and warned the IEA it would not be able to continue its work without female employees.
UN Secretary-General Guterres tweeted: "I strongly condemn the prohibition of our Afghan female colleagues from working in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province."
"If this measure is not reversed, it will inevitably undermine our ability to deliver life-saving aid to the people who need it."
The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, also reacted on his Twitter page and said the IEA decision to ban Afghan women UN staff from working is another gross violation of their fundamental rights, is against the UN Charter and will seriously impact essential services for Afghans. Women staff are essential, he said.
“I urge Taliban (IEA) to reverse the decision immediately,” Bennett tweeted.
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Iran enforces stricter laws on employment of illegal immigrants

Iran's Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni said on Thursday that the country has enforced stricter laws on the employment of illegal immigrants.
According to IRNA, Momeni told reporters that since March last year, about 1.1 million illegal foreign citizens have been repatriated to their country with the coordination of the International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Pointing out that some deported illegal foreign nationals return to Iran, he stated: "Plans in the areas of physical and electronic border closures have been prioritized to minimize the number of returns."
Momeni emphasized that employing illegal foreign nationals deprives Iranians of many job opportunities, therefore, labor laws have been implemented more strictly in this regard and violating employers will face action.
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IEA says it has control of Afghanistan embassy in Ankara

A foreign ministry official in Kabul said on Thursday that the Islamic Emirate's diplomats at the Afghanistan embassy in Ankara provide consular services and represent the country.
Earlier, the Afghan embassy in Ankara said in a statement that all diplomats appointed by the previous government would end their missions from February 6, 2025, adding that the embassy was handed over to the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Zakir Jalali, director of the third political department of the Afghan Foreign Ministry, said on X that the Afghan embassy in Ankara continues to operate and is at the service of citizens and other visitors.
"Citizens should be assured that consular services and representating duties are carried out by the diplomats of the Islamic Emirate in the embassy with transparency, responsibility and full commitment," he said. "Changes in diplomatic personnel are common in diplomatic missions.”
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IEA rejects claims of being targeted by cyberattackers

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (MCIT) said in a statement on Thursday that the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) digital systems have not been hacked and that all its data is secure.
This comes after a self-declared hacker group started posting documents on social media claiming that these were taken from IEA government systems over the past 12 months.
However, the IEA said in a statement on Thursday that the documents shared on social media were old documents that could have been leaked from individual computers that lacked security.
The IEA said the aim of social media users, who published the documents, was to confuse the public and make it appear as if the Islamic Emirate’s systems had been targeted in a cyberattack.
They also said their systems are secure, maintained by professional staff and protected from external interference.
In addition, the National Data Center and other archived systems are fully secure and have been reliably maintained against cyberattacks, the IEA’s statement read.
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