It is quite a dilemma: can you still help a needy population when the ruling fundamentalists forbid you to use women? For some prominent development organizations in Afghanistan, the answer is no.
News leaked out on Saturday that the Taliban had ordered women employees of local and international NGOs to stop working until further notice because they were not wearing the headscarf correctly. If an NGO does not obey this order, its work permit will be revoked. Also apart from the headscarf issue, the Taliban have long been barring NGOs where a woman is the boss.
Women workers of NGOs in the health sector are exempt from the new order, a health ministry official in Kabul confirmed to journalists. It is not clear whether this exception also applies to mobile health teams.
Child Protection
Development organizations Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, Care, Caritas International and the International Refugee Committee, among others, say they cannot effectively reach children, women and men in dire need in Afghanistan without the women in their workforce. They will cease their activities until the Taliban reverses their decision to exclude women. These NGOs provide health care, education, child protection and nutrition while humanitarian conditions in the country are deteriorating sharply.
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Neil Turner, the head of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Afghanistan, told the AP news agency on Sunday that his organization has “complied with all cultural norms.” “But we simply cannot operate without our dedicated female employees, who are essential for us to access women in urgent need.” Turner said his NGO has 468 female employees in the country.
Some other of the dozens of development organizations active in Afghanistan, including Afghanaid, World Vision and Intersos, have also temporarily suspended their aid. The German NGO Johanniter Weltweit is suspending its activities in the Afghan capital Kabul, but will continue in the southeastern town of Khost, because the local authorities allow female employees there.
The United States warned that the withdrawal of NGOs will disrupt essential and life-saving aid to millions of people. “Women are at the center of humanitarian operations around the world,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Saturday. “This decision could have a devastating impact on the Afghan people.”
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said he was deeply disturbed by reports of the ban on NGOs. “The United Nations and its partners, including national and international NGOs, are helping more than 28 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid for their survival,” he said in a statement.
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Downward spiral
The ban on female NGO workers comes days after the Taliban banned female students from attending university. That decision led to demonstrations in major Afghan cities. It was also hit last Saturday. In the southern city of Kandahar, hundreds of male students are boycotting their final exams of the semester at Mirwais Neeka University. One of them told the AP that Taliban forces tried to disperse the crowd as they left the exam hall.
The seizure of power by the Taliban in August 2021 sent the Afghan economy into a downward spiral. Millions of people go hungry and fall into poverty as a result. According to the UN, half of the 38 million Afghans need humanitarian aid to get through the winter.
Together with some NGOs, the UN would contact the Taliban on Sunday to discuss the ban on women. The UN is demanding that the ban be lifted. It is not yet known whether those consultations have yielded any results.