At least three non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have partially resumed their work with women in Afghanistan after receiving assurances from the Taliban regime that they can continue to work in the health sector.
On December 24, the Afghan Ministry of Finance announced that NGOs were banned from working with Afghan women due to “serious allegations” about clothing that does not fully cover the body and face.
Several organizations then announced that they would suspend operations in Afghanistan in protest of the ban.
However, in recent days, some groups have returned to provide support in some Afghan provinces, with health and nutrition officials present.
“We have resumed activities in the health sector with female staff” in four provinces, Samira Sayed-Rahman of the International Rescue Committee (IRC) told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“We are continuing discussions with provincial authorities to open health and nutrition activities in other provinces,” the IRC said in a statement.
Around 1,260 NGOs operate in the country, according to the Ministry of Economy, and employ thousands of women in essential positions, specifically in food aid programs, in the area of health or education.
Save The Children also announced on Sunday the resumption of humanitarian activities in various areas of Afghanistan.
Save the Children indicated that it will resume activities after having received “clear and reliable guarantees from the corresponding authorities” that “employees will be safe and will be able to work without interference.”
However, most of the organization’s programs remain suspended for lack of guarantees.
According to the NGO’s chief of operations, David Wright, “women are essential” because they make up 50% of the humanitarian workforce in the country and are trained to speak to Afghan women and girls.
In a statement, Swiss-based Care also announced that it will “resume health and nutrition activities in Afghanistan with male and female employees.”
“NGOs that work in the health sector operate with employees (…). We need them to support malnourished children and other women who need health services,” the spokesman for the Ministry of Economy told AFP on Tuesday. , Abdul Rahman Habib.
Despite initially promising a more moderate government on women’s and minority rights, the Taliban have embraced an increasingly fundamentalist interpretation of Islamic or sharia law.
In addition to prohibiting girls from attending primary, secondary and university education, they excluded women from most employment sectors and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public.
Afghan society, although very traditional, had adopted in the last 20 years, under the influence of the United States and its allies, the custom of sending girls and women to school.
Source: TSF
