Kabul, Dec 26 (Online): Four major international aid groups have suspended their operations in Afghanistan following a decision by the Taliban regime to ban women from working at non-governmental organisations.
Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE said on Sunday they could not effectively reach people in desperate need without the women in their workforces.
The NGO ban was introduced a day earlier, allegedly because women were not wearing the Islamic headscarf correctly.
The four NGOs have been providing healthcare, education, child protection and nutrition services and support amid plummeting humanitarian conditions.
Neil Turner, the Norwegian Refugee Council’s chief for Afghanistan, told the Associated Press the group had 468 female staff in the country.
“We have complied with all cultural norms and we simply can’t work without our dedicated female staff, who are essential for us to access women who are in desperate need of assistance,” Turner said.
The Taliban takeover in August 2021 sent Afghanistan’s economy into a tailspin and transformed the country, driving millions into poverty and hunger. Foreign aid stopped almost overnight. Sanctions on Taliban rulers, a halt on bank transfers and frozen billions in Afghanistan’s currency reserves have already restricted access to global institutions and the outside money that supported the country’s aid-dependent economy before the withdrawal of US and Nato forces.
In a statement, the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that excluding women from schools and NGO work in Afghanistan “can and will lead to catastrophic humanitarian consequences in the short to long term”. The Taliban also banned female students from attending varsities across the country this week.
Last month, in an interview with the AP, a top official from the the Red Cross, Martin Schuepp, said more Afghans would struggle for survival as living conditions deteriorate in the year ahead. Half of Afghanistan’s population, or 24 million people, are in need of humanitarian aid, according to the group.
Top US officials including the secretary of state, Antony Blinken, and the chargée d’affaires to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, condemned the move.
Decker, tweeting in Dari on Sunday, said: “As a representative of the largest donor of humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan, I feel I have the right to an explanation of how the Taliban intends to prevent women and children from starving, when women are no longer permitted to distribute assistance to other women and children.”
Her remarks triggered a response from the Taliban-led government’s chief spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, who said all institutions wanting to operate in the country were obliged to comply with its rules and regulations.
“We do not allow anyone to talk rubbish or make threats regarding the decisions of our leaders under the title of humanitarian aid,” he said in a tweet.
The Australian foreign minister, Penny Wong, condemned the “appalling decision”, saying on Twitter it “seriously impacts the country’s ability to deal with a major humanitarian crisis”.
The International Rescue Committee, whose staff in Afghanistan include more than 3,000 women, said it was dismayed by the Taliban decision. “If we are not allowed to employ women, we are not able to deliver to those in need,” the group said in a statement announcing it was suspending work in the country.
The NGO order came in a letter on Saturday from the economy minister, Qari Din Mohammed Hanif. The letter said any organisation found not complying with the order would have its licence revoked.
The flurry of rulings from the all-male and religiously driven Taliban government is reminiscent of its rule in the late 1990s, when it banned women from education and public spaces and outlawed music, television and many sports.
The ban on female students attending universities triggered demonstrations in several Afghan cities and backlash overseas.
Follow the PNI Facebook page for the latest news and updates.
