There's no country in the world where women and girls have so rapidly been deprived of their fundamental human rights purely because of gender: Richard Bennett

Taliban authorities rejected the claim of the UN report and said no women were fired from the Government jobs.
Sharafuddin Sharaf, chief of staff at the ministry of labour and social affairs, told AFP that many women were being paid despite not attending work, as offices were not set up for proper segregation of the sexes.

"Working together in one office is not possible in our Islamic system," he said, a day after a United Nations rights expert said there had been a "staggering regression" in women's rights since the Taliban's return to power in August.
He could offer no figure on the number of women working but insisted "not a single female employee has been fired" from the civil service.

However, there have been several protests by women over losing their jobs and demanding the right to work -- some of which have been put down forcefully by the Taliban.
Sharaf said some women only went to work "once in a week to their relevant offices to sign their attendance, and their salaries are paid at their homes".

"There's no country in the world where women and girls have so rapidly been deprived of their fundamental human rights purely because of gender," Richard Bennett, the special rapporteur on the rights situation in Afghanistan said in Geneva.

Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Bennett's report was biased."There is no threat to the lives of women in Afghanistan now, or nobody dishonours Afghan women," he said in a statement late on Monday, adding that they are still being enrolled in public and private universities.