United Nations Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo ended her Afghanistan sojourn on Sunday, having navigated a packed agenda in Kabul that spotlighted the regime’s draconian stance on women. Meetings with de facto power-holders, envoys, female trailblazers, activists, and UN women staff painted a comprehensive crisis picture.
To Taliban interlocutors, DiCarlo conveyed urgent disquietude regarding sanctions on UN female workers and the iron grip limiting women’s educational, professional, and social avenues. She implored prompt rescission to foster inclusivity.
Participation in Doha proceedings and international compliance were pitched as pathways to normalization, with authorities nodding to continued interactions.
She hammered home the imperative of frictionless trans-border aid movement, enlisting aid from officials amid teetering humanitarian needs.
Dialogues with women and civil society illuminated rights reversals; DiCarlo hailed UN Afghan women’s heroism in service delivery, standing in solidarity.
Since August 2021, women endure orchestrated marginalization—expelled from public payrolls, frozen out of aid entities except healthcare niches, travel yoked to guardians, dress codes stringently imposed, leisure and athletic pursuits forbidden, broadcast roles evaporated. DiCarlo’s forthright diplomacy signals escalating scrutiny, positioning women’s uplift as the litmus test for engagement.