As we near the last few days of the year, the world is officially counting down the days, waiting to get together and celebrate the closing of another year and welcome a new year with new beginnings and better opportunities. Amidst all of this positivity lies Afghanistan, a country that is slowly becoming more and more of a living hell for women. The Taliban rulers have stripped women of all their freedom and rights in the name of orthodox, misogynistic and so-called ‘traditional’ customs. The latest addition to this cruel treatment of women was that they have been banned from going to educational institutes. Taliban leaders have also instructed NGOs to stop women staff from working with them.
These decisions have been made because apparently women weren’t dressing appropriately at these places. Like, they weren’t wearing the Islamic hijab and following other rules and regulations about their work in national and international organisations. These announcements have prompted global outrage and protests for the rights of women in Afghanistan. This announcement has also prompted some serious warnings from the United Nations officials in Afghanistan and from foreign NGOs that are working in the country. They have clearly warned the Taliban leaders about the fact that much-needed humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will suffer immensely if women are stopped from working with them.
Top global NGOs like Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE have issued a joint statement regarding this decision. They have declared that they can’t reach the children, women and men who are desperately in need in Afghanistan without the support of their female staff. This means that with the current lack of economic stability, there will now be a lack of humanitarian aid in the country, causing people’s suffering to worsen.
These 3 foreign NGOs have hence declared that while they gain some clarity on this matter, they will be pausing and suspending their programmes in Afghanistan. They are demanding that both men and women in Afghanistan continue their lifesaving assistance because otherwise, their operations wouldn’t be possible.
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“Some NGOs have up to 2,000 women employees, and in most cases, they are the only breadwinners for their families,” said Mr Alakbarov, UN chief’s deputy special representative for Afghanistan. This means that the decision is also going to cause these families to suffer, without any income.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and various other officials from around the globe have also called for a “clear reaction from the international community” on this matter. Various sources have revealed that Taliban’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada also is facing immense pressure from Afghanistan’s Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani. Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqub and various other powerful figures in the government to reverse his decision to ban university-level education for women.
Also Read: Female Students Cry After Taliban Bans University Education. It’s Heartbreaking
We can now, only hope that the suffering of the women and people of Afghanistan is met with a suiting global pushback and that these awful decisions are reversed as soon as possible.