Isolating women isolates Kabul, UN tells Taliban.

UNITED NATIONS -- In a clear message to Kabul's de facto rulers, a UN delegation has warned that isolating women will also isolate Afghanistan and as the country faces a terrible humanitarian crisis, it cannot afford to do so.

The high-level UN delegation that visited Afghanistan this week, also urged the international community to support Afghan women.

UN legal experts, in another statement, described the 'collapse of the rule of law and judicial independence' in Afghanistan as 'a human rights catastrophe'. 'We are gravely concerned by the extreme exclusion of women from the legal system,' said the UN experts, while calling for 'urgent support' to the people of Afghanistan.

The delegation that visited Kabul included Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, the Executive Director of UN Women Sima Bahous, and the Assistant Secretary-General for UN political, peace building and peace operations Khaled Khiari.

Observers say findings of all-Muslim UN delegation may influence global policies towards Afghanistan

The delegation's composition was also intended to convey a message to Afghanistan's Taliban rulers as it included two of the senior most Muslim women in the UN system. One of them, Amina Mohammed, is also the senior most UN official after the secretary general. The third member, Mr Khiari, is also a Muslim.

The Taliban may find it difficult to portray the recommendations of an all-Muslim delegation, headed by a hijab-wearing UN official, as anti-Muslim propaganda, as they often do.

UN observers say the United Nations will share their recommendations with all member states, and thus the findings of the delegation may also influence global policies towards Afghanistan.

In a statement issued in New York on Friday afternoon, the delegation said the aim of this four-day visit to Afghanistan was to 'appraise the situation, engage de facto authorities and underscore UN solidarity with the Afghan people'.

In meetings with the Taliban authorities in both Kabul and Kandahar, the delegation 'directly conveyed (its) alarm' over some of the recent decrees, banning women from educational institutions and workplaces.

'My message was very clear ... these restrictions present Afghan women and girls with a future that confines them in their own homes, violating their...