The aid groups said they cannot effectively reach children, women, and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without female staff….reports Asian Lite News
Worldwide condemnation against the Taliban decision to ban women from working at domestic and international NGOs heightened with at least three foreign groups saying they will suspend operations in Afghanistan, media reports said.
The Swiss-based CARE, the US-based Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRE), all said they are suspending aid operations in Afghanistan following the Taliban rulers’ announcement that all NGOs should ban women from working at their jobs or face losing their licence to operate in the country, RFE/RL reported.
“Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” the leaders of CARE, NRC and Save the Children said in a joint statement in response to the ban on NGOs employing women in Afghanistan.
“We cannot effectively reach children, women, and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” the three aid groups said in a joint statement, RFE/RL reported.
The decision to ban women from working in NGOs has come straight after they were banned from higher education for an indefinite period of time by the Taliban.
“Beyond the impact on the delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis. Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programs, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” Khaama Press quoted the leaders of NCR, CARE, and Save the Children as saying.
Later, the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), which has been active in Afghanistan since 1988, said it was “dismayed and disheartened by the latest Taliban edict” and that it too would suspend operations in the country.
Western nations and international organizations expressed condemnation of the Taliban move, with the United Nations saying the decision “takes the country backward” and the United States, Germany, and the EU among those assailing the action.
In a Twitter post, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote that “American officials should stop interfering in our internal matters.
All those institutions wanting to operate in Afghanistan are obliged to comply with the rules and regulations of our country.”
The Taliban on December 24 said in a letter from the Islamist group’s economy ministry that domestic and international NGOs should suspend all female employees because it said the women were not in compliance with regulations regarding the wearing of a hijab, or the traditional head scarf, in the conservative Muslim nation.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, too, expressed deep concern over the ban imposed by the Taliban on women working at NGOs.
“The Secretary-General is deeply disturbed by the reported order of the de facto Taliban authorities banning women from working for national and international non-governmental organizations,” said the spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Stephane Dujarric, in a statement.
“This decision will undermine the work of numerous organizations working across the country helping those most vulnerable, especially women and girls,” he added.
The United Nations and its partners, including national and international NGOs, are helping more than 28 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid to survive.
The Taliban ban on women working with the international community to save lives and livelihoods in Afghanistan will cause further untold hardship for the people of Afghanistan, the UN chief added.
The UN chief reiterated the rights of all women to participate in the workforce, thus contributing to the greater good.
The decision, along with an earlier move to ban women from attendinguniversities, sparked rare protests in the country against the hard-line Taliban rulers and caused consternation among the workers themselves, RFE/RL reported.
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