The Afghan Ministry of Economics is instructing “all organizations to stop working for women until further notice,” the House said in a statement on Saturday. Organizations that fail to comply with the ban on women’s employment face the risk of their license being revoked. It was initially unclear whether the ban only applies to Afghan nationals or also to foreigners.
Two international NGOs, meanwhile, confirmed to AFP that they received the ministry’s notification. “We are suspending all our activities from Sunday,” said a senior official at an international humanitarian NGO. There will soon be a meeting of the management of several NGOs to discuss how to proceed.
Even after the Taliban returned to power in August 2021, dozens of non-governmental organizations are still active in Afghanistan, and many of their employees are women.
When they took power again, the radical Islamic Taliban initially announced that they wanted to be less harsh than during their first rule from 1996 to 2001. However, the militia is now becoming more and more radical.
The EU is one of the most important financial supporters of NGOs in Afghanistan. However, Brussels does not recognize the Taliban administration as the country’s official government. The spokeswoman for foreign affairs representative Borrell described the announced employment ban for NGO employees as “another serious restriction on Afghan women’s ability to exercise their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”
The human rights organization Amnesty International called the measure a “regrettable attempt to “wipe out” women from the political, social and economic sphere” in Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, the Taliban had already banned women in the country from accessing higher education. Less than three months ago, thousands of girls and women across the country had taken university entrance tests. Many of them wanted to study teaching or medicine.
Most teenage girls in Afghanistan are already excluded from further secondary education. Scores of women public servants have been laid off. Women and girls are also prohibited from entering public parks and gardens.
