Faint hopes that Taliban will relax ban on NGO women after UN condemnation

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Faint hopes exist that the Taliban may relax its ban on all women working for the non-governmental aid agencies in Afghanistan after the UN security council condemned the ban in a rare show of unanimity.

Almost all the large NGO aid agencies operating in Afghanistan have suspended almost all their work while talks continue to persuade the Taliban to rescind or clarify their decision. Tens of thousands of aid workers – many of them the chief breadwinners for the household – have been told to stay at home during the suspension, as the UN seeks to persuade the Taliban of the consequences for ordinary people in Afghanistan.

The aid agencies say under Afghanistan’s customs they cannot provide vital services to women in Afghanistan such as health advice without female staff or doctors.

Not all Taliban ministries support the ban on women working for NGOs and are looking at a plan that could allow women to continue working in a way that satisfies the conservative-minded leadership in Kandahar. Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN’s top humanitarian coordinator in Afghanistan, claimed the Taliban health ministry had accepted it should continue its health-related work and women could “report to work and discharge their services”.

Other ministries had also contacted the UN directly to say work in the areas of disaster management and emergencies should continue, he added. But there was a lack of clarity about what would be permitted in practice.

Samira Sayed Rahman, a spokesperson for the International Rescue Committee, told the Guardian from Kabul “many of the past issues between aid agencies and the Taliban had been at checkpoints about the lack of a mahran, a male guardian, rather than whether our women workers were wearing the hijab, but that was the issue raised by the Taliban in announcing the ban on women workers at NGOs.

“It puts us in an incredibly difficult situation. Aid prevented a famine last winter. We have 28 million people in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, but the de facto authorities made the decision that women cannot work in national and international NGOs.

“It is practically impossible to continue our work without female staff. This is a conservative society and we need female workers to access women. This is a country where men and women do not interact in the public space. We would be cut off from half of Afghanistan.

“The impact is not just in terms of aid, but lost jobs. We have to be hopeful that the de facto authorities understand the implications of this.”

In a rare show of unanimity the 15-strong UN security council agreed on Tuesday and called for the full participation of women and girls in Afghanistan. “These restrictions contradict the commitments made by the Taliban to the Afghan people as well as the expectations of the international community,” the UN said.

It added it was also “deeply alarmed” by the increasing restrictions on women’s education, calling for “the full, equal and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan”.

The Taliban have already suspended university education for women and secondary schooling for girls.

Shahabuddin Delawar, the Taliban’s acting minister of mining and oil, said that by April a decision would be made regarding the opening of schools and universities for girls, which was in line with both sharia and “Afghan customs”.

He told TOLOnews TV that the decree of Haibatullah Akhundzada, the leader of the Taliban, regarding the closure of schools and universities might be temporary.

If there is no relaxation of the Taliban decree, the main UN agencies in Afghanistan face the dilemma of whether to continue to provide aid to Afghanistan or join the NGOs in suspending services.

The ban on female workers was not extended to UN humanitarian agencies working under the umbrella of the UN Afghanistan mission, but on Tuesday the UN security council in a statement condemned the Taliban move, adding it would affect the work of the UN inside the country. Alakbarov had warned the ban on women working was a red line for the entire humanitarian community implying UN agencies may if necessary join the suspension.

UN secretary general Ant?nio Guterres said on Twitter on Tuesday that the restrictions were “unjustifiable human rights violations and must be revoked”. He added: “Actions to exclude and silence women and girls continue to cause immense suffering and major setbacks to the potential of the Afghan people.”

The UN’s high commissioner for human rights Volker T?rk said: “The ban will significantly impair, if not destroy, the capacity of these NGOs to deliver the essential services on which so many vulnerable Afghans depend.

“It is all the more distressing with Afghanistan in the grip of winter, when we know humanitarian needs are at their greatest and the work these NGOs do is all the more critical.”