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It comes as the top UN rights forum in Geneva agreed to Member States request for a rare Urgent Debate on the issue this Friday.

Addressing the Council, Fawzia Koofi, former deputy speaker of the Afghan Parliament, said lack of opportunity and ailing mental health, was taking a terrible toll: "Every day there is at least one or two women who commit suicide for the lack of opportunity, for the mental health, for the pressure they receive.

The fact that girls as young as nine years old are being sold, not only because of economic pressure, but because of the fact thatthere is no hope for them, for their family, it is not normal.

Echoing widespread international concern for ordinary Afghans, UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet condemned the massive unemployment of women, the restrictions placed on the way they dress, and their access on basic services.

Women-owned and operated businesses have been shut down, Ms. Bachelet added, saying that 1.2 million girls no longer have access to secondary education, in line with a decision by the de facto authorities who took power in August 2021.

The de facto authorities I met with during my visit in March this year, said they would honour their human rights obligations as far as [being] in line with Sharia law.

Yetdespite these assurances, we are witnessing the progressive exclusion of women and girlsfrom the public sphere and their institutionalised, systematic oppression.

Ms. Bachelet encouraged the re-establishment of an independent mechanism to receive complaints from the public and protect victims of gender-based violence.

Beyond being right, it is also a matter of practical necessity,said the High Commissioner.Amid the economic crisis, womens contribution to economic activity is indispensable, which itself requires access to education, and freedom of movement and from violence.

Also speaking at the Human Rights Council, its Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in Afghanistan, Richard Bennett, described a chilling attempt by the Taliban to make women invisible, by excluding them almost entirely from society.]

As an example of the de facto authorities intentions to impose absolute gender discrimination, the independent rights expert also noted thatwomen are now represented by men at Kabuls Loya Jirga, or grand assembly of religious scholars and elders.

Such measures contravene Afghanistans obligations under numerous human rights treaties to which it is a State party, Mr. Bennett insisted before adding that the situation for women massively diminish(ed) womens lives, deliberately attack women and girls autonomy, freedom and dignity, and create a culture of impunity for domestic violence, child marriage and sale and trafficking of girls, to name but a few of the consequences.

UNICEF/Sayed Bidel

Girls at school in Herat, Afghanistan.

Despite public assurances from the Taliban to respect women and girls rights, they are reinstituting step by step the discrimination against women and girls. Said Ms. Koofi, a former member of the peace negotiation team with the Taliban said that the fundamentalistsobviously have not kept their promises of what they were telling us during the negotiations, in terms of their respect for Islamic rights for women.

Ms. Koofi added thatin fact, what they do is in contradiction to Islam. Our beautiful religion starts with reading. But today, Taliban under the name of the same religion, deprive 55 percent of the society from going to school.

For Nasir Andisha, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Afghanistan to the UN in Geneva,the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan demands nothing less than a robust monitoring mechanism to collect, consolidate, and analyse evidence of violations, to document and verify information, to identify those responsible to promote accountability and remedies for victims, and to make recommendations for effective prevention for future violations.

A draft resolution on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan is being negotiated at the Human Rights Council and will be considered on 7 July.

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In Afghanistan, women take their lives out of desperation, Human Rights Council hears - UN News