Helping Afghan Women

World community must engage the Afghan Taliban & keep helping citizens of this war-ravaged country

PESHAWAR: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’s (IEA) much-rumoured, but unexpected edict barring women from working for the non-governmental organizations (NGO) came out on the Christmas eve, forcing officials of the humanitarian organisations and governments across the world to leave everything behind and sit in front of computers to figure out what it meant for their life-saving work in that war-battered country, suffering its worst winters in 15 years.

An expatriate female humanitarian worker in Kabul, expressing her concerns about the edict, said that she had to cut her holidays short on hearing the news and return to Afghanistan immediately after Christmas. “There was no fun in anything after hearing the sad news,” she said. “We were preparing for the Christmas-eve dinner… but I had to sit in front of my computer as my family waited for me to join them at the dinner. I was thinking about the thousands of female workers and the hundreds of thousands of women-led households, widows and orphans to whom our only access was through the female NGO workers. The burning question was, how would we reach out to those women and children with aid and assistance in the absence of our women colleagues?” she said.

With the exception of women working in the health sector and the United Nations agencies, thousands of working-class women, who often happen to be the only breadwinners for their families, are now unable to report for duties at the national and international NGOs. And like a number of other edicts by the IEA in the past 17 months, this one too has brought strong opposition from the international community and the general Afghan population along with a mixed reaction from the Afghan Taliban themselves.

Defending the decision, one Afghan Taliban source informed this scribe that in Kabul such decisions were necessary for blocking ways and means of spreading vulgarity. Requesting anonymity, the Taliban source said that he believed that the young women working in the NGOs followed modern-lifestyle. “They were required to go on fieldwork, often spend days and nights away from families with colleagues, which remains against the teachings of Islam as well as the Pashtun way of life,” he said.

Luckily, people with such a mindset in the Taliban are not in the majority as an overwhelming number in the group see such edicts against women and girls in conflict with the Shariah.

Another Taliban source who remains close to elders in the opposite moderate and hardline camps sarcastically expressed that enemies of the Taliban did not need to do anything except patiently watch as the Taliban destroyed themselves from within with decisions he termed as “shooting oneself in the foot”. He said that some among the Taliban were so unfamiliar with the needs of modern life that they celebrated decisions like banning women from universities and work.

However, challenges ahead for the so-called moderate Taliban, who include many high-level leaders, are far too serious. One reason, like in any Islamic education or political system, is that the element of respect for teachers and elders in the Afghan Taliban leads to conformity and silence. The seniority of some elders, who are opposed to girls’ education and women working in the NGOs, means that the moderates would never question their decisions even if they felt that they were hurting their government and the people in general.

Similarly, keeping internal unity is one of the most important goals for the IEA and interestingly it is also linked to the aforementioned practice within its ranks. The moderate majority believe that instead of directly challenging unpopular decisions, they can try and continue convincing the hardliners through dialogue and reasoning. In this case, the Taliban wants the international community to show patience as reaching a consensus on such issues often takes months and even years.

Furthermore, the Afghan Taliban take pride in staying united under one ruler — their Ameer-ul-Momineen Sheikh Haibatullah Akhunzada. Those who know him say that the Sheikh is not a politically-motivated person and would not be pressured by anything unless it was backed by strong religious arguments. He is believed to be an extremely religious man, who compares hardships and problems with those of the prophets and their pious companions. The Taliban believe that it is his stance on many issues that have kept the unity of the group, eliminated the threat of internal wars in the country, and effectively ended the exportation of Jihad and Jihadists from Afghanistan despite the presence of several jihadist and extremist groups in the country in one form or the other.

All this is seen differently from where the International Community sits and watches Afghanistan. Humanitarian organizations are worried that the country continues to slide when it comes to social and political freedoms despite the fact that the Taliban stemmed out of corruption, effectively reduced poppy cultivation and tackled drug trafficking. The human rights violations, including the restriction on girls’ education and the recent ban on women working in the NGO sector, are decisions that are keeping over half of the nearly 40 million population behind in the race of life. Many donors question the Taliban’s sincerity in giving equal rights to everyone in the future, which is why they are stressing on concrete assurances from the interim government before committing future aid for the country.

Fortunately, the recent high-level visit by United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Muhammad, followed by a delegation consisting of the heads of Care International, Save the Children US, and the UNICEF, and led by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Chief Martin Griffiths, had many positives to take from Kabul and Kandahar.

With over 50 years of global experience in humanitarian work, peace mediation and negotiations, Mr. Griffiths enjoys the trust and respect of various governments and political, religious groups, including the Afghan Taliban leadership. He has been able to underline the importance of aid work, upholding of human and women rights, and girls’ right to education to the Taliban. At the same time, he has tirelessly been working to convince the international community to engage the Taliban and continue providing material and financial assistance to the Afghan people.

While chairing the recent UN’s Inter-Agency Standing Committee briefing on the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan on Feb. 1, Mr. Griffiths expressed that there were no promises and timelines given. Still, he remained optimistic that positive news will come from Kabul in the near-future.

And that is what we all can do, stay optimistic as the Taliban try to solve their matters internally.