The acting head of the United Nations mission in Afghanistan met with Taliban leaders on Monday in an effort to persuade them to lift their ban on all women working for aid agencies.
According to them, they are unable to function without female staff. At least seven international NGOs have suspended aid.
In Kabul, R-A M-I Z Alakbarov met with Din Mohammad H-A N-I F, the Taliban's economy minister, and told him that millions of Afghans require "humanitarian assistance and removing barriers is vital".
In response to international criticism, the Taliban's minister of higher education, N-I D-A Mohammad N-A D-I, stated that his government would not alter its position regarding girls' access to education "even if they drop an atomic bomb on us" and that "we are ready for sanctions by the international community".
In the meantime, the Service of International concerns of Qatar declared in a proclamation that admittance to work is a standard of basic freedoms that is acknowledged by all nations of the world. The government of a Muslim nation is the latest to criticize the Taliban's move.
No less than seven significant worldwide guide bunches have suspended their crucially required tasks in Afghanistan, possibly leaving the nation's battered economy near the precarious edge of breakdown. By acting together and showing solidarity, the aid organizations hope to persuade the Taliban that they have crossed a line that prevents the NGOs from operating.
Women make up about a third of the staff at NGOs, and they are seen as crucial to providing services in a way that is culturally appropriate. The prohibition applies to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), but the staff of UN agencies like the World Food Program and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has not yet been affected.
The aid organizations had met with the Taliban leadership to assure them that female employees would only travel long distances with a male companion and would wear the hijab.
In any case, the NGOs said the Taliban had overlooked the endeavors and renounced the commitments.
The move was interpreted as a decisive signal that the Taliban had decided to reimpose all repressive measures against women that it had implemented in the 1990s, when it was last in power. In doing so, it finally buried the idea that the Taliban leadership no longer followed the conservative Pashtun culture in the countryside. During their two decades without power, many had suggested that the Taliban had reformed.
The Taliban also made it illegal for women to go to college last week. Secondary schools are already closed to girls, and in November, public gardens, gymnasiums, and public baths were closed to women
The Norwegian Refugee Council's chief executive, Jan E G-E L-A N D, acknowledged that the temporary suspension of services had been challenging, but told the BBC: With only male employees, we cannot function effectively and adequately. In times when conditions are getting worse, NGOs are crucial to the provision of services and support in the areas of nutrition, education, child protection, and healthcare.
In a statement, the IRC, which employs 3,000 women among its 8,000 employees, stated: "Because our services are dependent on the work of women, it will be catastrophic for the Afghan people if humanitarian services are not provided by women". Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, elicited one of the strongest responses, stating: "The Taliban's use of humanitarian aid as a pawn in their misogyny is unacceptable to us"
Top US officials, including the Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, and the chargé d'affaires to Afghanistan, Karen Decker, condemned the move
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