UN aid chief seeking to reverse ban on Afghan women workers
EDITH M. LEDERER
Mon, January 23, 2023
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. humanitarian chief and leaders of two major international aid organizations are in Afghanistan following last week’s visit by a delegation led by the U.N.’s highest-ranking woman with the same aim – reversing the Taliban’s crackdown on women and girls including its ban on Afghan women working for national and global humanitarian organizations.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths was in the Afghan capital Monday along with Janti Soeripto, CEO of Save The Children US, and Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, the secretary general of Care International as well as Omar Abdi, the deputy executive director of UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency.
Dujarric said last month’s Taliban ban on Afghan women working for non-governmental organizations has put some aid programs on hold and is “sowing fears that the already dire humanitarian situation in Afghanistan will get even worse.”
Some 28 million Afghans are in need of food, medicine and other humanitarian aid, “a 350% hike in just five years,” according to the latest report released Monday on the Humanitarian Needs Overview for Afghanistan, Dujarric said.
U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said last Friday that the delegation headed by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed found that some Taliban officials were more open to restoring women’s rights but others were clearly opposed.
“The key thing is to reconcile the (Taliban) officials that they’ve met who’ve been more helpful with those who have not,” Haq said.
Mohammed, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister and a Muslim who is the U.N.’s highest-ranking woman, was joined on the trip by Sima Bahous, executive director of UN Women which promotes gender equality and women’s rights, and Assistant Secretary General for political affairs Khaled Khiari.
The U.N. team met with the Taliban in the capital of Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar, but the U.N. did not release the names of any of the Taliban officials. The meetings focused on the restrictive measures the Taliban have imposed on women and girls since they took power in August 2021, during the final weeks of the U.S. and NATO forces’ pullout after 20 years of war.
Griffiths is expected to focus especially on reversing the December ban on Afghan women working for NGOs. The U.N. has stressed that Afghan women are crucial to delivering humanitarian help to civilians, the majority of them women and children.
U.N. aid chief raises women's rights concerns with Taliban in Afghan capital
Cash aid for displaced people in Kabul
Mon, January 23, 2023 at 9:26 AM MST·2 min read
KABUL (Reuters) -The United Nations' aid chief visited Kabul on Monday and raised concerns over women's education and work with the Taliban administration's acting minister of foreign affairs, an Afghan ministry statement said.
The Taliban-run administration last month ordered NGOs not to allow most female employees to work, prompting many aid agencies to partially suspend operations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis unfolding during a bitterly cold winter.
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths raised the issue of women's education and work and how this affected the U.N.'s operations, according to a ministry of foreign affairs statement.
Speaking generally about Griffiths's visit to Afghanistan, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Griffiths would engage the Taliban administration "with the same message that we've been delivering since the beginning on the need to to rollback the policies that were put in place" on women.
He said Griffiths would "underscore the message that humanitarian aid cannot be delivered without women."
Griffiths's travel follows a visit to Afghanistan last week by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who expressed alarm to Taliban officials in Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar over the administration's orders restricting women from work and education.
Acting Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi said he asked Griffiths to share with the international community the Taliban administration's "achievements and opportunities" like a general amnesty for former opponents, "instead of complaints and shortcomings."
The foreign ministry statement said Griffiths had acknowledged security had improved in the country, which had seen decades of fighting before the Taliban took over as foreign troops withdrew in 2021.
No foreign government has formally recognised the Taliban administration since it seized power, with some diplomats saying it must change course on women's rights. Many countries have expressed major concerns over most girls and women over the age of 12 being stopped from attending school or university.
Enforcement of sanctions and a cut in development aid have contributed to the country falling into an economic crisis which has left more than half the population dependent on humanitarian aid, aimed at meeting urgent needs.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield, additional reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Deepa Babington)
Cash aid for displaced people in Kabul
Mon, January 23, 2023 at 9:26 AM MST·2 min read
KABUL (Reuters) -The United Nations' aid chief visited Kabul on Monday and raised concerns over women's education and work with the Taliban administration's acting minister of foreign affairs, an Afghan ministry statement said.
The Taliban-run administration last month ordered NGOs not to allow most female employees to work, prompting many aid agencies to partially suspend operations in the midst of a humanitarian crisis unfolding during a bitterly cold winter.
U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths raised the issue of women's education and work and how this affected the U.N.'s operations, according to a ministry of foreign affairs statement.
Speaking generally about Griffiths's visit to Afghanistan, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Griffiths would engage the Taliban administration "with the same message that we've been delivering since the beginning on the need to to rollback the policies that were put in place" on women.
He said Griffiths would "underscore the message that humanitarian aid cannot be delivered without women."
Griffiths's travel follows a visit to Afghanistan last week by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed, who expressed alarm to Taliban officials in Kabul and the southern city of Kandahar over the administration's orders restricting women from work and education.
Acting Afghan Minister of Foreign Affairs Amir Khan Muttaqi said he asked Griffiths to share with the international community the Taliban administration's "achievements and opportunities" like a general amnesty for former opponents, "instead of complaints and shortcomings."
The foreign ministry statement said Griffiths had acknowledged security had improved in the country, which had seen decades of fighting before the Taliban took over as foreign troops withdrew in 2021.
No foreign government has formally recognised the Taliban administration since it seized power, with some diplomats saying it must change course on women's rights. Many countries have expressed major concerns over most girls and women over the age of 12 being stopped from attending school or university.
Enforcement of sanctions and a cut in development aid have contributed to the country falling into an economic crisis which has left more than half the population dependent on humanitarian aid, aimed at meeting urgent needs.
(Reporting by Mohammad Yunus Yawar and Charlotte Greenfield, additional reporting by Michelle Nichols, editing by Deepa Babington)
AFGHAN WOMEN NEED TO CREATE
THEIR OWN SELF DEFENSE UNITS
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