Global Outrage Grows, Groups Suspend Operations After Taliban Bans Women NGO Staff In Afghanistan

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By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
December 25, 2022

Worldwide condemnation against the Taliban decision to ban women from working at domestic and international NGOs heightened on December 25, with at least three foreign groups saying they will suspend operations in Afghanistan.

The Swiss-based CARE, the U.S.-based Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRE) all said they were suspending aid operations in Afghanistan following the Taliban rulers’ announcement that all NGOs should ban women from working at their jobs or face losing their license to operate in the country.

“We cannot effectively reach children, women, and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” the three aid groups said in a joint statement.

Western nations and international organizations expressed condemnation of the Taliban move, with the United Nations saying the decision “takes the country backward” and the United States, Germany, and the EU among those assailing the action.

The Taliban on December 24 said in a letter from the Islamist group’s economy ministry that domestic and international NGOs should suspend all female employees because it said the women were not in compliance with regulations regarding the wearing of a hijab, or the traditional head scarf, in the conservative Muslim nation.

The decision, along with an earlier move to ban women from attending universities, sparked rare protests in the country against the hard-line Taliban rulers and caused consternation among the workers themselves.

“I was so upset when I heard about the Taliban decree that I couldn’t even sleep last night,” a woman in the central province of Daikundi who has been working for an NGO told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. She asked that her name and exact location not be disclosed because of fears for her safety.

“I’m the only breadwinner in my family. We don’t have anyone else in my family who can work. My entire life depended on my work. [My family] doesn’t have any other income.”

She added that “it’s not only me who is in this situation. All my colleagues are distraught. All the women I spoke to are upset.”

“I can’t describe how concerned and hopeless we feel right now,” she said.

In its statement, the Norwegian Refugee Council said: “Without women driving our response, we would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021. Beyond the impact on delivery of lifesaving assistance, this will affect thousands of jobs in the midst of an enormous economic crisis.”

CARE, which has provided aid services throughout the world since 1945, said it was “deeply concerned” by the ban.

It said that without women aid workers, “NGOs may not be able to reach women, girls, and families, cutting access to aid for half of a population already suffering from a hunger crisis.”

Since the Taliban seized power in August last year, Western officials and activists, along with some inside Afghanistan, have expressed deep concerns about women’s rights under the extreme conservative rule of the Islamist Taliban leadership despite their vow to protect rights.

Women’s rights were severely restricted during the Taliban’s first stint in power until they were driven from government by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

With reporting by AFP

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Two Girls in Samangan Raped, Beheaded by Taliban Fighters, Reports

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8am: Sources confirmed to Hasht-e Subh on Saturday that two bodyguards of the Taliban governor for Roy Doab district, Mullah Shamshad, raped these two girls a week ago in Surkh Qala village of the same vicinity and then beheaded them in front of their families. According to locals, after his bodyguards raped these girls, Mullah Shamshad showed up on the scene and ordered his men to execute the victims immediately on charges of adultery. Meanwhile, according to reports, the Taliban are harassing families in the northern parts of Afghanistan to have their daughters persuaded to marry Taliban members. Click here to read more (external link).

Afghanistan’s Taliban Rulers Order NGOs To Prevent Women From Working At Their Jobs As Protests Spread

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Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty
December 24, 2022

In the latest assault on women’s rights, Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers ordered all domestic and international NGOs to prevent female employees from working at their jobs, claiming that many were not observing dress codes in the conservative Muslim nation.

“There have been serious complaints regarding the nonobservance of the Islamic hijab and other rules and regulations pertaining to the work of females in national and international organizations,” the Islamist group’s economy ministry said on December 24 in a note sent to NGOs and seen by AFP and other Western news agencies.

AP reported that the note said that any organization which did not comply with the order would have its license to operate in the country revoked.

Full details of the order were not immediately available, and it was not clear how it would affect the various United Nations agencies operating in Afghanistan.

The reports come as rare protests continued to erupt in parts of Afghanistan following the Taliban decision announced on December 20 to forbid women from universities, drawing condemnation from the international community and the UN.

Taliban security forces have used violence and arrested several people as they have dispersed protests by Afghan women against the ruling.

On December 24, dozens of women and girls protested in the western city of Herat before they were stopped by security forces, according to video posted on social media.

AP said it observed video showing women yelling and running for cover to avoid water cannons before returning to the main street to continue their protest.

VOA quoted a local Taliban official as saying that security forces blocked protesters from reaching buildings housing the provincial government.

On December 22, a group of some 50 women dressed in hijabs, some wearing masks, gathered in the capital, Kabul, for a protest march against the move before they were attacked and dispersed by Taliban security forces, participants and witnesses told RFE/RL.

Several hundred medical students — both male and female — protested against the measure at Nangarhar University’s medical school in eastern Afghanistan on December 21.

Some of the female students, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals by the Talban, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi that their end-of-semester exams were supposed to begin on December 22, but following the announcement, they were barred from taking the exams.

In a rare display of solidarity, some male students joined the protest and refused to take part in the exams as well.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) has urged the Taliban rulers to revoke the decision to ban female students from universities.

UNAMA warned that preventing women from “contributing meaningfully to society and the economy will have a devastating impact on the whole country,” and bring more international isolation and economic hardship to a country already on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier said he was “deeply alarmed” by the Taliban decision, labeling it another “broken promise” by the group — which vowed to protect women’s rights when it took power.

Since the Taliban seized power in August of last year, Western officials and activists, along with some inside Afghanistan, have expressed concerns about women’s rights under the extreme conservative rule of the Islamist Taliban leadership. The Taliban rulers have not been officially recognized as the country’s government by the international community.

Women’s rights were severely restricted during the Taliban’s first stint in power until they were driven from government by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

With reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi, AFP, and AP

Copyright (c) 2022. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

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Hekmatyar to UN: Leave Afghanistan’s seat empty if not given to Taliban

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Gulbuddin Hekmatyar

Ariana: IEA [Taliban] last year nominated their current head of their political office in Qatar, Suhail Shaheen, as Afghanistan’s UN ambassador, but the seat is still held by Naseer Ahmad Fayeq, representative of the previous Afghan government. “If the United Nations couldn’t hand over the seat to the current government, could it not let it be empty,” Hekmatyar said in his weekly Friday sermon. He said that Fayeq represents only himself. Click here to read more (external link).

Al-Azhar Imam: Ban on Women’s Education Contradicts Sharia

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Tolo News: The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, Ahmed el-Tayeb on Thursday said that he “deeply” regrets the decision issued by the authorities in Afghanistan, preventing Afghan women’s access to university education and adding that it contradicts Islamic Sharia and conflicts with its explicit call for men and women to pursue knowledge from the cradle to the grave. Tayeb said he warns “Muslims and non-Muslims against believing or accepting the allegation that it banning women’s education is approved in Islam.” Click here to read more (external link).

Canada Reviews Counterterror Laws to Aid Taliban-Run Afghanistan

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Akmal Dawi
VOA News
December 22, 2022

The Canadian government might have a lot of disagreements with the Taliban leadership in Afghanistan but it is reviewing Canada’s counterterrorism laws to find ways to help people under Taliban rule.

Canada has designated the Taliban a terrorist entity, prohibiting Canadian citizens and organizations from all transactions with Taliban individuals, processes and institutions.

More than a dozen Canadian non-governmental organizations have called on Ottawa to carve out humanitarian exceptions for them, so they can continue to operate in Afghanistan.

“Canadian humanitarian and development agencies have operated in Afghanistan for decades and must be allowed to continue carrying out essential operations,” the NGOs said in an open letter.

Canada pledged $143 million to the U.N. system to fund humanitarian operations for Afghans inside and outside Afghanistan. A major donor to Afghanistan, Canada spent more than $3.8 billion on development and humanitarian activities in Afghanistan between 2002 and 2021, but immediately stopped all development assistance after the Taliban seized power in August 2021.

“Departments from across the government of Canada are seized with this issue and are working to identify a solution that upholds Canada’s national security interests, while facilitating the effective delivery of assistance to the Afghan people in this unprecedented situation,” Genevieve Tremblay, a spokesperson for Canada’s International Development Agency, told VOA.

Ottawa is not interested in taking the Taliban off its terrorism list. The action is rather prompted by calls from aid agencies for an urgent response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

“Canada remains deeply concerned about the continuing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and we will continue to do all that we can to support the Afghan people,” said Tremblay.

On Tuesday, U.N. emergency relief coordinator Martin Griffiths told the Security Council that 97% of the people in Afghanistan live in poverty and two-thirds need urgent humanitarian assistance for survival.

“We face a daunting financial challenge as we enter 2023. We need $4.6 billion to adequately address the country’s humanitarian needs,” Griffiths said.

Feminist policy

In addition to its terrorism-related legal restrictions, Canada’s feminist international development policy also appears at odds with a Taliban-run Afghanistan, where women have been deprived of education, work and many other freedoms.

This week the Taliban closed all private and public universities to women, a move globally condemned as misogynistic.

Aid workers say the Taliban also interfere with and restrict humanitarian operations in Afghanistan, particularly for women.

“Female humanitarian workers face harassment, intimidation and mistreatment on a daily basis,” the U.N. reported in September.

Canada has prioritized women in its Feminist International Assistance Policy and requires its funded partners to integrate gender-based programming into all their programs.

“These decisions were made very strategically,” Paras told VOA “to empower women around the world but also to trademark Canada’s identity as a donor.”

US example

This week, the U.S. government announced it is relaxing some sanctions on the Taliban to help aid agencies deliver essential humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.

“Today we are making an important update to U.S. sanctions. Our updated general licenses across U.S. sanctions programs will make it easier to deliver life-saving aid to those in need while ensuring sanctions target those threatening peace, security, and stability,” Antony Blinken, U.S. secretary of state, tweeted on Tuesday.

The U.S. has committed over $1 billion in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan over the last year, making Washington the top donor to the famine-hit country.

While commending U.S. funding, aid agencies say Washington’s strict economic sanctions have inhibited humanitarian response operations and have exacerbated economic hardships for many Afghans.

The U.S. humanitarian waivers will encourage Canada to ease its own sanctions and allow Canadian aid to reach needy Afghans, Paras said.

“We in Canada tag along with our bigger cousin across the border,” she said.