Foreign aid organisations stopped their functioning in Afghanistan on Sunday as a result of the Taliban’s decision to forbid women from working for both international and local non-governmental organisations.
Without their female workers, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and CARE claim they are unable to successfully reach the children, women, and men in Afghanistan who are in the greatest need.
In the latest crackdown on women’s freedoms in Afghanistan, the Taliban regime has ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGO) to stop female employees from coming to work in the country, TOLOnews reported on Saturday.
The Taliban-led Ministry of Economy ordered all national and international non-government organizations to suspend the jobs of female employees until further announcement, Afghan news agency TOLOnews reported.
Citing a Taliban spokesperson Abdul Rahman Habib, TOLOnews said the Islamic outfit Ministry of Economy (MOE) warned that if any organization, which receives a license from the MoE does not implement the order, their license will be cancelled.
This comes a few days after the Taliban ordered the closure of universities to female students across the country.
On Wednesday, the UN mission in Afghanistan expressed the outrage of millions of Afghans and the international community over the decision by the Islamic regime and called on the de facto authorities to revoke the decision immediately.
In a statement, the UN mission said “the UN and its humanitarian partners also urged the de facto authorities to reopen girls’ schools beyond the sixth grade and end all measures preventing women and girls from participating fully in daily public life,” the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said.
“Banning women from attending university is a continuation of the systematic policies of targeted discrimination put in place by the Taliban against women,” the UNAMA statement read.
Since 15 August 2021, the de facto authorities have barred girls from attending secondary school, restricted women and girls’ freedom of movement, excluded women from most areas of the workforce and banned women from using parks, gyms and public bath houses.
These restrictions culminate with the confinement of Afghan women and girls to the four walls of their homes. The UN mission argued that preventing half of the population from contributing meaningfully to society and the economy would devastate the whole country.
“It will expose Afghanistan to further international isolation, economic hardship and suffering, impacting millions for years to come,” the statement said.
The UN estimates that restricting women from working can result in an economic loss of up to USD 1 billion – or up to five per cent of the country’s GDP.
