U.N. asks Afghan staff to stay home until May after female worker ban

FILE PHOTO: Afghan women learn how to read the Koran in a madrasa or religious school in Kabul, Afghanistan, October 8, 2022. REUTERS/Ali Khara

(Reuters) - The United Nations' mission to Afghanistan has launched a review of its operations and asked all Afghan staff not to come to work at least until May after the Taliban administration barred its women staff from working, it said in a statement on Tuesday.

The United Nations said last week that the Taliban, who swept to power in 2021, had communicated that Afghan women would not be able to work for the global organisation. Taliban officials have not commented on the order.