UN officials calls meeting as Taliban stops NGOs employing females

2022-12-25

‘Afghanistan has become a hell for women’: UN officials call emergency meeting as Taliban demands NGOs stop employing females – less than a week after Sharia authorities banned women from attending universities

The meeting was called as the Taliban ordered NGOs to stop employing women
It comes less than a week after they banned women from attending university
Shabana, a 24-year-old NGO employee, said ‘Afghanistan is a hell for women’

UN officials have called an emergency meeting for today as the Taliban demanded NGOs stop employing women.

It comes less than a week after Sharia authorities banned women from attending universities.

The emergency meeting between UN and NGO officials will discuss whether to suspend all aid to Afghanistan in light of the order.

Afghanistan has been described as ‘a hell for women’, as the latest restriction comes after an order to ban females from attending universities sparked outrage and protests.

Afghanistan has been described as ‘a hell for women’, as the latest restriction comes after an order to ban females from attending universities sparked outrage and protests

The country’s Minister for Higher Education, Neda Mohammad Nadeem, issued an order saying: ‘You all are informed to implement the mentioned order of suspending education of females until further notice.’

And now NGOs have also been ordered to send all female employees home.

‘I’m the only breadwinner of my family. If I lose my job my family of 15 members will die of hunger,’ said Shabana, 24, an employee with an international NGO working in Afghanistan for decades.

‘While the world is celebrating the arrival of the new year, Afghanistan has become a hell for women.’

The Ministry of Economy yesterday threatened to suspend the operating licences of NGOs if they failed to implement the order and send female employees home.

The ministry, which issues these licences, said it had received ‘serious complaints’ that women working in NGOs were not observing a proper Islamic dress code.

Tapiwa Gomo, public information officer for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said: ‘A meeting of Humanitarian Country Team (HCT) is scheduled later today to consult and discuss how to tackle this issue.’

The HCT is made up of top UN officials and representatives of dozens of Afghan and international NGOs who coordinate distribution of aid across the country.

The meeting will discuss whether to suspend all aid work following the latest Taliban directive, some NGO officials said.

The United Nations, which said it would seek an explanation from the Taliban about the order, condemned the ministry’s directive.

It said the order excluding women ‘systematically from all aspects of public and political life takes the country backward, jeopardising efforts for any meaningful peace or stability in the country’.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the ban would be ‘devastating’ to Afghans as it would ‘disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions’.

The ministry said women working in NGOs were not observing ‘the Islamic hijab and other rules and regulations pertaining to the work of females in national and international organisations’.

But Arezo, who works for another foreign NGO, said: ‘Our offices are gender segregated, and every woman is properly dressed.’

It remained unclear whether the directive impacted foreign women staff at NGOs.

The ban comes at a time when millions across the country depend on humanitarian aid provided by international donors through a vast network of NGOs.

Afghanistan’s economic crisis has only worsened since the Taliban seized power in August last year, which led to Washington freezing billions of dollars of its assets and foreign donors cutting aid.

On Tuesday, the minister of higher education banned women from universities, charging that they too were not properly dressed. That ban triggered widespread international outrage and some protests, which were forcefully dispersed by the authorities

Dozens of organisations work across remote areas of Afghanistan and many of their employees are women, with several warning a ban on women staff would stymie their work.

‘The ban is going to impact all aspects of humanitarian work as women employees have been key executors of various projects focusing on the country’s vulnerable women population,’ said a top official of a foreign NGO in Kabul.

On Tuesday, the minister of higher education banned women from universities, charging that they too were not properly dressed.

That ban triggered widespread international outrage and some protests, which were forcefully dispersed by the authorities.

Since returning to power in August last year, the Taliban have already barred teenage girls from secondary school.

Women have also been pushed out of many government jobs, prevented from travelling without a male relative and ordered to cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa.

They are also not allowed to enter parks or gardens.

The Taliban have also resumed public floggings of men and women in recent weeks, widening their implementation of an extreme interpretation of Islamic sharia law.

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