By Khatir Pardes
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
July 15, 2023

Shima runs a sewing course for several dozen women that is funded by the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan (SCA), one of the largest aid groups operating in the country.

The program has provided a sustainable livelihood for the women, who live in an impoverished rural district in the eastern province of Laghman.

But the project could be scrapped after the Taliban on July 11 suspended the activities of the SCA. The militants have also threatened to stop the operations of other aid groups that receive funding from Sweden.

The Taliban’s decision came after the burning of the Koran, Islam’s holy book, in Stockholm last month, which triggered outrage in the Muslim world and was condemned by the Swedish government.

The SCA has played a major role in the fields of health, education, and vocational training since the Taliban seized power in 2021, which aggravated a devastating humanitarian crisis and triggered an economic collapse.

“I am very sad that the Swedish Committee for Afghanistan is closing,” the 25-year-old Shima told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “I request the Taliban not to shut down this organization.”

The Swedish aid group has operated in Afghanistan for most of the past 40 years of war, and millions of Afghans have benefited from its assistance.

“The decision of the Taliban to shut down this organization is very bad news for the Afghan economy,” Farida Hafeez, who has worked for the SCA for the past five years, told Radio Azadi. “Unemployment will rapidly rise in Afghanistan.”

The SCA employs around 8,000 Afghans in 18 of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces. With an annual budget of over $50 million, the organization runs health-care facilities in the central province of Wardak and the eastern province of Nuristan. Last year, its clinics treated more than 2.5 million patients in the two provinces, the group has said.

The SCA also educates over 130,000 children in its rural schools and supports more than 20,000 people with disabilities in the same communities.

Hafeez said the Taliban’s decision to suspend the SCA’s activities will further worsen the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

The United Nations estimates that some 28 million Afghans, or more than two-thirds of the country’s 40-million population, need humanitarian assistance. Six million Afghans are on the brink of starvation.

The Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), a government agency that oversees Sweden’s development assistance to developing countries, has been a major donor of humanitarian and development assistance to Afghanistan for years. Last year, its funding to Afghanistan exceeded more than $90 million.

The Taliban has warned that it could target aid groups that receive funding from SIDA.

The Taliban on July 11 ordered the suspension of “Sweden’s activities in Afghanistan until they apologize to Muslims for this heinous act,” in reference to the Koran burning in Stockholm.

On the same day, the SCA issued a statement that said it was seeking a “dialogue” with the Taliban to clarify the group’s order.

The SCA said it is a “people to people” organization that has observed “deep respect” for Islam and Afghan traditions since it first started operating in Afghanistan in 1980.

The SCA worked in Taliban-controlled areas of Afghanistan during the extremist group’s nearly 20-year insurgency against the Western-backed Afghan government and international forces.

“SCA strongly condemns all acts of desecration of the Holy Quran,” said the statement. “Just as we condemn any attempt to create conflict or hostility between people based on religious belief, ethnicity, nationality, or any other division.”

The organization said that it is not a Swedish government entity but “independent and impartial in relation to all political stakeholders and states” and funded by a “broad range of donors.”

The Taliban has been at loggerheads with international aid groups for months. In December, the group banned Afghan women from working for local and foreign NGOs, leading major organizations to halt or reduce their operations, including emergency food distribution, health-care services, and education. In April, the ban was expanded to include the UN.

Later that month, international donors and aid agencies suspended their operations in three Afghan provinces after accusing the Taliban of attempting to divert or manipulate aid distribution.

In June, the UN revised its annual aid budget for Afghanistan from $4.6 billion to $3.2 billion this year, citing reduced funding from international donors. The world body said that a “changing operating context” in the wake of the Taliban’s ban on female aid workers had contributed to the revised plan.

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by Radio Azadi correspondent Khatir Pardes

Copyright (c) 2023. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.