UN to Taliban: ‘Vital’ to reverse ban on women in NGOs | Taliban News

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The Taliban’s decision to ban women from working for NGOs has led many organizations to suspend aid work in Afghanistan.

The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan has asked the country’s Taliban administration to rescind its ban on women working for non-profit organisations, with global NGOs pulling out of the country in response to the restrictions.

“Millions of Afghans need humanitarian assistance, and removing barriers is vital,” the United Nations Assistance Mission to Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement on Monday. The statement added that Ramiz Alakbarov, acting head of the mission and coordinator of humanitarian affairs, met with Minister of Economy Muhammad Hanif.

On Saturday, Hanif’s ministry ordered all domestic and foreign NGOs not to allow female employees to work until further notice. The orders do not apply directly to the United Nations, but many of its programs are carried out by NGOs subject to the order.

On Sunday, three global NGOs – Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International – said in a joint statement that they were suspending their programs while they waited for the administration’s clarification.

“We cannot effectively reach the children, women and men in greatest need in Afghanistan without our female employees,” the statement said, adding that without women leading the effort, they would not have reached the millions of Afghans in need since August of last year.

Separately, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) said in a statement that it had suspended its services in the country, citing similar reasons. The International Rescue Committee said it employs more than 8,000 people in Afghanistan, nearly 3,000 of whom are women.

The suspension of some aid programs reaching millions of Afghans comes at a time when more than half the population depends on humanitarian aid, according to aid agencies, and during the coldest season in the mountainous country.

Earlier, the international aid agency AfghanAid said it had immediately suspended operations while it consulted with other organisations, and that other NGOs were taking similar action.

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan on Sunday also expressed concern about the move and the previous ban on women from attending university, warning of “catastrophic humanitarian consequences in the short and long term”.

But the Taliban administration has so far shown no signs of reconsidering the ban on women working in NGOs or studying at universities.

The Ministry of Economy, which issues licenses to non-profit organisations, said on Saturday it had received “serious complaints” that women working for NGOs were not adhering to “the Islamic headscarf and other rules and regulations related to female work in the homeland and the country”. International organizations “.

Dozens of organizations operate in remote areas of Afghanistan and many of their staff are women, with many warning banning female employees would hinder their work.

The latest ban comes less than a week after the Taliban banned women from attending universities, sparking global outrage and protests in some Afghan cities.

Afghan female university students stop by Taliban security personnel standing next to a university in Kabul on December 21, 2022. [File: Wakil Koshar/AFP]

Since returning to power in August last year, the Taliban have banned teenage girls from attending secondary schools.

Women were also removed from many government jobs, forbidden to travel without a male relative and ordered to cover up outside the home, ideally with a burqa.

They are also not allowed into parks or gardens.

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