At least dozen foreign NGOs halts activities in Afghanistan

• Save the Children, NRC, and CARE stop Afghanistan operations.
• More than 3,000 of International Rescue Committee’s 8,000 staff are women.
• Taliban banned female NGOs from working.

At least a dozen foreign humanitarian organizations are temporarily ceasing activities in Afghanistan after the Taliban banned female NGOs from working.

“We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” aid organizations Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said in a joint statement Sunday.

“Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our program, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” said the statement, which was signed by the heads of the three NGOs.

Another aid group, the International Rescue Committee, said that of the more than 8,000 people it employs in Afghanistan, more than 3,000 are women. “If we are not allowed to employ women, we are not able to deliver to those in need,” it said in a statement on Sunday, announcing it was pausing operations in the country.

Afghanaid also suspended its work in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s move, while Islamic Relief said it had been forced to “temporarily suspend non-lifesaving activities in Afghanistan.”

After the Taliban forbade female employees of non-governmental organizations from reporting to work, at least a dozen significant international humanitarian organizations have said they are temporarily stopping their operations in Afghanistan.

David Wright, chief operating officer for Save the Children International, told Media on Monday that the organization was unable to “reach tens of thousands of vulnerable mothers and children right across the country” because of the ban.

“We can’t get out to work because we need our female colleagues to help us get access to women and children. You can’t access young mothers or young children in education if you don’t have female staff, because it’s not appropriate in Afghanistan to have all-male staff dealing with young women or children,” he said.

In the letter, the ministry cites the nonobservance of Islamic dress rules and other laws and regulations as reasons for the decision.

“Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter said, adding that as a result “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations.”

Following the Taliban’s violent takeover of the nation in August 2021, the new limitations represent just another step in the militant Islamist group’s ruthless onslaught on Afghan women’s freedoms.

Despite the Taliban’s frequent claims that they will preserve girls’ and women’s rights, they have actually done the exact reverse, taking away the hard-won liberties that women have battled valiantly for over the past 20 years.

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