3,300 UN Afghan staff stay home over Taliban ban on women

UNITED NATIONS, Apr 07 (AP): The United Nations said the 3,330 Afghan men and women it employs stayed home for a second day Thursday to protest the Taliban's ban on U.N. female staff working in the country as it continued to press for the decision to be reversed.

The U.N. Security Council held an emergency meeting on the Taliban's action and pushed its calls for the ban to be overturned.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric reiterated the U.N.'s insistence that all U.N. staff are needed to deliver life-saving aid to millions and stressed again that "Afghan women will not be replaced by men." He also said the United Nations doesn't want to get into a situation where it replaces Afghan women with international women, who are not banned from working in the country.

He explained that culturally it is always better to have nationals from a country delivering aid to their local population.