KABUL: National and foreign nongovernmental organizations in Afghanistan are facing closure for employing women following new rules enforcing a 2-year-old decree that restricted the work of female NGO staff.
In an official letter addressed to the organizations, the Taliban-run Ministry of Economy said on Dec. 29 that failure to implement the measures would mean that “all activities of the offending organization will be suspended and the work license they received from this ministry will be revoked.”
The order enforces a decree from December 2022 that barred national and international NGOs in Afghanistan from employing women. This is part of a series of curbs that, in the three years since the Taliban took power, have restricted women’s access to education, the workplace, and public spaces.
“This letter is a follow-up of the original letter from 2022 ... Some NGOs have reached an understanding with the officials at the local level to allow female employees to attend to their work in these organizations and at the community level, while others were stopped,” an official at a women-led international NGO told Arab News.
“A complete ban on female employees will adversely affect the operations of NGOs and will further marginalize the women of Afghanistan ... Donors will not fund men-only organizations. In addition, it’s difficult to work with women in the community without female staff.”
Two years after the Taliban government ordered NGOs to suspend the employment of Afghan women, it is not only the organizations’ work and the women themselves that have been affected, but also entire families.
When Wahida Zahir, a 26-year-old social worker in Kabul, had to leave her job at an NGO, her closest family members lost their main support.
“I was the only one in my family who had a job and with the ban on female work two years ago, my family lost the main source of income. My brothers are still studying and my father is ill,” she said.
“I live with stress and tension every moment of every day. We are literally living like prisoners. There’s a new restriction every other day. It is as if there is no other work that the government does.”
The UN has warned that removing women from NGO work “will directly impact the ability of the population to receive humanitarian aid,” with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights calling on the Taliban to revoke the decree.
“The humanitarian situation in Afghanistan remains dire, with more than half the population living in poverty,” it said. “NGOs play a vital role in providing critical life-saving assistance — to Afghan women, men, girls and boys.”
In the wake of the humanitarian crisis that Afghanistan has been facing for years, it needs more women engaged in social work, not less, say activists.
“The country needs more female aid workers, educators and health professionals to reach to the most vulnerable groups of the population, including women and children,” said Fazila Muruwat, an activist in the eastern Nangarhar province.
“Afghanistan is a traditional society. Communities in Afghanistan are more accepting of humanitarian and other forms of support when aid workers include women. Otherwise, it will be all men’s show and women will remain vulnerable in all aspects of their life.”
