UN suspends some programmes in Afghanistan after work ban for women

Some "time-critical" programmes in Afghanistan have been temporarily suspended following a ban by the Taliban on women working in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the United Nations' Inter-Agency Standing Committee (IASC) said on Wednesday.

Banning women from doing humanitarian work in Afghanistan "has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans," the IASC said in a statement, urging the Taliban to reverse the ban.

"While humanitarian organizations continue to engage the de facto authorities, we cannot ignore the operational constraints now facing us as a humanitarian community," said the committee, which comprises 18 UN and non-UN organizations and is the UN's highest-level humanitarian coordination forum.

"We will endeavour to continue lifesaving, time-critical activities unless impeded... But we foresee that many activities will need to be paused as we cannot deliver principled humanitarian assistance without female aid workers," it said.

The statement, signed by the executive heads of humanitarian organizations including UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and World Health Organization (WHO) head Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that some "time-critical programmes" have already had to be paused "due to lack of female staff."

The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan is considered precarious. Since the Taliban returned to power last year amid the withdrawal of international troops, the economy has collapsed.

The United Nations and its partners, including national and international NGOs, are currently assisting more than 28 million Afghans who depend on humanitarian aid for their survival, according to UN figures. The country has an estimated population of 37 million.

The Taliban have massively restricted women's rights since taking power in August 2021. Girls and women are now largely excluded from public life and many have not been allowed to return to their jobs. Most recently, the regime banned women from attending university.

The foreign ministers of 12 countries including the U.S., France and Germany, as well as the High Representative of the European Union on Wednesday joined the UN Security Council in condemning the ban on women working in NGOs and called for its reversal.

In a joint statement, the foreign ministers expressed concern that "the Taliban's reckless and dangerous order barring female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from the workplace puts at risk millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance for their survival."

"We call on the Taliban to urgently reverse this decision," the statement read.

"The Taliban continue to demonstrate their contempt for the rights, freedoms, and welfare of the Afghan people, particularly women and girls, and their disinterest in normal relations with the international community," it added.