File photo showing Afghan women chanting slogans during a protest against the ban on university education for women in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022. AP
Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE said they cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without their female staff.
Germany’s foreign minister on Sunday called for a “clear reaction from the international community” as Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban banned women from working in NGOs after barring them from attending university.
“Those who exclude women and young girls from work, from education and from public life are not only destroying their country… We will try to get a clear reaction from the international community,” Annalena Baerbock said on Twitter.
The United States has condemned the Taliban for ordering non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to stop hiring women, saying the ban will disrupt vital and life-saving aid to millions.
The Taliban’s takeover last year plunged Afghanistan’s economy into a tailspin and transformed the country, plunging millions into poverty and hunger. Foreign aid stopped almost overnight. Sanctions against Taliban rulers, a freeze on bank transfers and frozen billions in Afghanistan’s foreign exchange reserves have already limited access to global institutions and the external money that supported the country’s aid-dependent economy before US and NATO forces withdrew.
“Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday. “This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”
The NGO order came in a letter from Finance Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif. It said that any organization that does not comply with the order will have its license to operate in Afghanistan revoked. It is the latest blow to women’s rights and freedoms since the Taliban seized power last year and follows sweeping restrictions on education, employment, clothing and travel.
The storm of edicts from the all-male and religiously-run Taliban government is reminiscent of their rule in the late 1990s, when they banned women from education and public spaces and banned music, television and many sports.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was deeply concerned by reports of the ban on NGOs.
“The UN and its partners, including national and international NGOs, are helping more than 28 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid for survival,” he said in a statement.
Aid agencies and non-governmental organizations are expected to issue a statement on Sunday.
The economy ministry’s order comes days after the Taliban banned female students from attending universities across the country, sparking a backlash abroad and demonstrations in major Afghan cities.
Around midnight on Saturday in the western city of Herat, where earlier protesters were dispersed with water cannons, people opened their windows and chanted “Allahu Akbar (God is great)” in solidarity with female students.
In the southern city of Kandahar, also on Saturday, hundreds of male students boycotted their final semester exams at Mirwais Neeka University. One of them told The Associated Press that Taliban forces tried to break up the crowd as they left the graduation hall.
“They tried to disperse us so we chanted slogans, then others joined the slogans,” said Akhbari, who gave only his last name. “We refused to move and the Taliban thought we were protesting. The Taliban started shooting their rifles in the air. I saw two guys being beaten, one of them in the head.”
A spokesman for Kandahar’s provincial governor, Ataullah Zaid, denied there was a protest. There were some people posing as students and teachers, he said, but they were stopped by students and security forces.
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