MONITORING DESK
ISLAMABAD: G7 foreign ministers have called upon the Taliban government in Afghanistan to immediately reverse a ban on women working in the aid sector.
The G7 ministers from Australia, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands issued a joint statement on Thursday saying that they were seriously concerned about the Taliban’s reckless and dangerous order putting millions of Afghans at risk who depend on humanitarian assistance for their survival in the war-affected country.
The recent ban is considered to be a major blow against women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power last year. Earlier this month, the Taliban government also barred women from attending universities, instigating global outrage followed by protests in some Afghan cities.
The statement further maintained that G7 had asked the Taliban to urgently reverse the decision. The statement appeared at a time when six aid bodies suspended operations in Afghanistan in context of the ban.
The organizations that stopped operations comprise Christian Aid, ActionAid, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE.
Meanwhile, the International Rescue Committee, which delivers emergency response in health, education, and other sectors and employs 3,000 women across the country, also said it was suspending services in Afghanistan.
G7 on Aid Workers
The statement issued by G7 ministers further stated that women are an integral part of humanitarian and basic needs operations and without their participation, NGOs and aid-providing bodies would be unable to cover the country’s most vulnerable masses to provide the food, medicine, winterization, and other necessary materials and services they require to live.
Meanwhile, Christian Aid has cautioned that millions of people in Afghanistan are on the verge of starvation. Christian Aid’s head of global programs Ray Hasan said that several families in Afghanistan were so desperate they have been compelled to sell their children to buy food adding that such a ban on women aid workers would only curtail their ability to help the growing number of people in need.
The Taliban’s decision to ban has come at a time when millions of people across the country are dependent on humanitarian aid provided by international aid donors through a vast network of NGOs.
Afghanistan’s economic crisis became worsened since the Taliban seized power in August last year, followed by Washington freezing billions of dollars of its assets and foreign donors cutting aid.
Meanwhile, earlier this month the minister of higher education banned women from universities, charging that they too were not properly dressed. Moreover, the Taliban had already barred teenage girls from secondary school along with a number of women being removed from many government jobs, prevented from traveling without a male relative or guardian, and ordered to cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa.
