The United Nations Women Special Representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson, has urged governments and international donors to increase, rather than cut, foreign aid to Afghan women and girls.

She warned that reducing support would further entrench the exclusion of half of the country’s population.

Ferguson, who made the call, said women and girls in Afghanistan were facing worsening economic vulnerability, poverty and forced marriage amid intensifying restrictions on their rights.

She said every women’s organisation surveyed in April reported an increase in women’s economic vulnerability and poverty, while more than eight in 10 reported an increase in early and forced marriage.

According to her, Afghanistan’s vulnerability to natural disasters and climate shocks was compounding the humanitarian crisis, pushing already vulnerable families further into hardship.

“This year, more than 10.7 million Afghan women and girls need humanitarian assistance. And 4.9 million women and children are expected to need treatment for malnutrition,” Ferguson said.

She described the situation as a stark contradiction, noting that organisations still able to reach and support Afghan women were being forced to do more despite diminishing resources and increasing needs.

“So we are facing a stark contradiction. Despite operating in the world’s most severe women’s rights crisis. Despite being one of the last remaining lifelines for many vulnerable women and girls. Despite needs rising as poverty deepens and restrictions on women intensify.

“The organisations that can still reach and support Afghan women are being asked to do more and more – with less and less,” she said.

Ferguson said five years after the Taliban takeover, the international community must strengthen its commitment to Afghan women and girls rather than withdraw support.

The UN Women representative urged governments and other international donors to sustain investment in Afghan women and girls, warning that reducing assistance could contribute to the normalisation of their exclusion from public life.

“So I urge all governments and other international donors to continue investing in Afghan women and girls. To increase, not cut, their foreign aid.

“Because to do anything less is to walk away from Afghan women and girls would be another step towards normalisation.

“There is nothing normal about excluding half a country’s population from public life. There was nothing normal about it five years ago, there is nothing normal about it today and we must never allow it to become normal,” Ferguson said.