LONDON: Thursday, foreign ministers from the G7 nations urged the Taliban to “urgently reverse” a ban on women working in the aid sector of Afghanistan.
Since the Taliban gained control of Afghanistan last year, the ban is the most recent setback for women’s rights.
In addition, earlier this month, the administration prohibited women from attending universities, causing worldwide outrage and protests in some Afghan cities.
“gravely concerned that the Taliban’s reckless and dangerous order… puts at risk millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance for their survival,” the G7 ministers, along with those from Australia, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, said in a joint statement.
In the British foreign ministry’s statement, they said, “We call on the Taliban to urgently reverse this decision.”
In response to the ban, six aid organizations halted operations in Afghanistan.
Save the Children, Christian Aid, ActionAid, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and CARE were among them.
The International Rescue Committee, which employs 3,000 Afghan women and responds to emergencies in health, education, and other areas, also announced that it would cease operations.
“Women play a crucial role in humanitarian and basic needs efforts. According to the G7 statement, “NGOs will be unable to reach the country’s most vulnerable people to provide food, medicine, winterization, and other materials and services they need to live” unless they participate in aid delivery in Afghanistan.
Rights are violated
It went on to say that “The Taliban continue to demonstrate their contempt for the rights, freedoms, and welfare of the Afghan people, especially women and girls.”
Christian Guide has cautioned that great many individuals in Afghanistan are “very nearly starvation”.
Ray Hasan, head of global programs for Christian Aid, stated, “Reports that families are so desperate they have been forced to sell their children to buy food are utterly heartbreaking.”
He added, “only curtail our ability to help the growing number of people in need” if women aid workers were banned.
Millions of people across the nation rely on the humanitarian assistance provided by a vast network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) by international donors at the time of the Taliban’s ban.
Since the Taliban took power in August of last year, the country’s economic crisis has only gotten worse, resulting in Washington freezing billions of dollars worth of assets and cutting aid from foreign donors.
Protests were violently dispersed by the authorities after the minister of higher education banned women from universities on the grounds that they were also improperly dressed.
The Taliban had already prohibited teenage girls from attending secondary school since their return to power in August of last year.
Additionally, women have been ordered to cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa, and have been prevented from traveling without a male relative.
Female employees were “key to every aspect of the humanitarian response in Afghanistan,” according to UN agency chiefs, adding their voice to the call to lift the ban.
“They are educators, nutritionists, team leaders, community health workers, vaccinationists, nurses, doctors, and organizational leaders.
In a statement late on Wednesday, the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Afghanistan, which includes representatives from the United Nations and other international organizations that provide humanitarian assistance, stated, “They save lives.” They have access to populations that their male colleagues cannot reach.
“Their participation in the delivery of aid is not subject to negotiation and must continue.”
Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the European Union make up the G7 group.
