Aid agencies suspend work in Afghanistan after Taliban bans women

Foreign aid groups have suspended operations in Afghanistan after a decision by the country’s Taliban rulers to ban women from working at international and local non-governmental organisations.

Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and Care said they cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without the women in their workforces.

The NGO ban was introduced a day earlier, allegedly because women were not correctly wearing the Islamic headscarf.

“We have complied with all cultural norms and we simply can’t work without our dedicated female staff, who are essential for us to access women who are in desperate need of assistance,” said Neil Turner, Norwegian Refugee Council chief for Afghanistan.

He said the group has 468 female staff in the country.

The developments came in response to the Taliban’s latest edict that curtails the rights and freedoms of women since they seized power last year.

The three NGOs provide healthcare, education, child protection and nutrition services and support amid plummeting humanitarian conditions.

The Taliban takeover sent Afghanistan’s economy into a tailspin and transformed the country, driving millions into poverty and hunger.

Foreign aid stopped almost overnight. Sanctions on Taliban rulers, a halt on bank transfers and frozen billions in Afghanistan's currency reserves have already restricted access to global institutions and the outside money that supported the country's aid-dependent economy before the withdrawal of US and Nato forces.

Last month, in an interview with Associated Press, a top official from the International Committee of the Red Cross, Martin Schuepp, said more Afghans will struggle for survival as living conditions deteriorate in the year ahead and the country braces for its second winter under Taliban rule.

The US warned the NGO ban will disrupt vital and lifesaving assistance to millions.

“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.”

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UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres said he was deeply disturbed by reports of the NGO ban.

“The United Nations and its partners, including national and international non-governmental organisations, are helping more than 28 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid to survive,” he said in a statement.

The International Rescue Committee said it was dismayed by the Taliban decision, adding that more than 3,000 of its staff in Afghanistan are women. It was not immediately clear if it is also suspending operations.

The NGO order came in a letter from economy minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif. It said any organisation found not complying with the order will have their licence revoked in Afghanistan.

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The flurry of rulings from the all-male and religiously driven Taliban government is reminiscent of their rule in the late 1990s, when they banned women from education and public spaces and outlawed music, television and many sports.

The economy ministry’s order comes days after the Taliban banned female students from attending universities across the country, triggering a backlash overseas and demonstrations in major Afghan cities.

At about 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 exams at Mirwais Neeka University.

A spokesperson for the Kandahar provincial governor, Ataullah Zaid, denied there was a protest.