CARE International and other aid groups are urging the Taliban to reverse their decision to ban women from working at non-governmental organizations.-/AFP/Getty Images
Canada and its allies are urging the Taliban to reverse their decision to ban women from working at non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan, saying it puts millions of Afghans who depend on aid for survival at risk.
Some NGOs suspended their work in the country after the Taliban issued the edict on Saturday. Many of the leaders of those organizations have said that operating without female workers in Afghanistan is next to impossible.
On Thursday, Canada, Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Britain, the United States and the High Representative of the European Union issued a statement calling the Taliban order “reckless and dangerous.”
“Women are absolutely central to humanitarian and basic needs operations. Unless they participate in aid delivery in Afghanistan, NGOs will be unable to reach the country’s most vulnerable people to provide food, medicine, winterization, and other materials and services they need to live,” the statement said.
Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, CARE International’s secretary-general, said her organization, along with other international and local NGOs, received a letter on Saturday explaining the Taliban order. She said CARE International and others have suspended their work until they understand the decree.
“We are of course working with the UN and with the donor community in order to hopefully influence this decision. There are ongoing dialogues,” she said.
Ms. Sprechmann Sineiro said this winter in Afghanistan has been cruel and harsh. She added that the need for humanitarian aid in the country has dramatically increased, and that women are crucial in providing that support.
“The reason why women are so critical in Afghanistan, probably more than in other contexts, is that in Afghanistan it is only female humanitarian workers that can approach women,” she said. Male workers can’t meet with women in their homes, because doing so is considered inappropriate.
“Women humanitarians are therefore in Afghanistan absolutely indispensable, and it’s just a non-negotiable part of aid delivery,” she added.
Ms. Sprechmann Sineiro said CARE employs 900 staff members in Afghanistan, about a third of whom are women. The entire NGO sector in the country, she said, consists of about 55,000 staff members, of whom most are Afghans and 28 per cent are women.
“The humanitarian support, the direct livelihood support, is precisely the difference between life and death,” she said.
Since the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in August, 2021, they have consistently restricted women’s rights. In March, girls were prevented from going to high school, and last week the Taliban said they were barring women from attending university.
The country has plunged further into economic turmoil since the takeover. Most people there now live in poverty, and nearly 20 million Afghans face acute hunger, according to the United Nations.
Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN aid co-ordinator for Afghanistan, said at a briefing in New York on Thursday that the Taliban decision has already affected UN programs. He said the UN is working to find solutions, adding that the organization’s emergency and relief co-ordinator, Martin Griffiths, will visit Afghanistan and will try to meet with the “highest possible authorities” in the coming weeks.
Mr. Alakbarov said UN officials have met with Taliban ministries. He said he had met personally with the Minister of the Economy to discuss the ways programs in that sector will be affected by the ban. He added that his team had had a “rather constructive” meeting with the Taliban Health Minister, where they spoke about delivery of health services to women and girls.
Mr. Alakbarov said nearly 70 per cent of UN programs are implemented in partnership with NGOs, as well as other international or national organizations.
Danny Glenwright, president and chief executive of Save the Children Canada, said in a statement that his organization can’t deliver its life-saving support without its female colleagues.
“If we aren’t able to start programming again children will die. … That’s how serious the situation is,” he said.
Mr. Glenwright said Save the Children had been treating 73,000 Afghan children and 30,000 women. These lives are at risk without female medical staff members, he said.
The aid organization said it had 5,700 staff members and community workers in Afghanistan, of which 2,490 were women. It has worked in the country for 40 years.
The statement from Canada and other countries said the Taliban continue to demonstrate their contempt for the rights, freedoms and welfare of Afghan people, especially women and girls, and their disinterest in normal relations with the international community.
“To this end, we are in close contact with the United Nations, who are urging, also on behalf of all international donors, that the Taliban reverse this decision immediately.”
The Canadian government has been criticized for preventing humanitarian groups from working on the ground in Afghanistan. Canada’s largest aid agencies have said that, because Ottawa considers the Taliban a terrorist organization, humanitarian work is impeded by Canada’s sanctions regime and a federal law prohibiting financing of terrorism.
International Development Minister Harjit Sajjan told The Globe and Mail earlier this month that Ottawa is preparing to change the law to make it easier for humanitarian organizations to operate in Afghanistan, while not making a change to the Taliban’s designation as a terrorist group.
Patricia Skinner, a spokesperson for Global Affairs Canada, said Canada is working with organizations in Afghanistan – including the UN, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and NGOs – to deliver international assistance.
Ms. Skinner said that, because the Taliban is a terrorist group and is a listed terrorist entity under the Criminal Code, government departments are “seized with this issue and are working to identify a solution that upholds Canada’s national security interests while facilitating the effective delivery of assistance to the Afghan people in this unprecedented situation.”
In 2022, Canada allocated $143-million in humanitarian assistance to support vulnerable populations in Afghanistan and neighbouring countries, she said. Between 2001-02 and 2020-21, Canada provided $4.05-billion in international assistance, which included humanitarian and development assistance.
She said Canada has not finalized humanitarian funding allocations for 2023.