On Thursday, G7 foreign ministers urged the Taliban to “urgently overturn” a prohibition on women working in Afghanistan’s humanitarian sector.
The restriction is the most recent setback for women’s rights in Afghanistan since the Taliban took power last year.
Earlier this month, radical Islamists prevented women from attending universities, sparking global criticism and riots in certain Afghan cities.
In a joint statement, the G7 ministers, together with those from Australia, Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, and the Netherlands, said they were “gravely worried that the Taliban’s reckless and hazardous order… puts millions of Afghans who rely on humanitarian assistance for survival” at risk.
“We encourage the Taliban to rescind this decision immediately,” they said in a statement issued by Britain’s foreign office.
In response to the restriction, six assistance organizations ceased operations in Afghanistan.
Christian Aid, ActionAid, Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council, and CARE were among them.
The International Rescue Committee, which employs 3,000 women in Afghanistan and offers emergency assistance in health, education, and other areas, has announced a suspension of activities.
“Women are vitally essential in humanitarian and basic needs activities. NGOs will be unable to reach the country’s most vulnerable people to give food, medicine, winterization, and other supplies and services they require unless they participate in assistance distribution in Afghanistan, according to the G7 statement.
“The Taliban continue to exhibit their contempt for the Afghan people’s rights, freedoms, and wellbeing, particularly women and girls,” it continued.
According to Christian Aid, millions of Afghans are on the verge of hunger.
“Reports that families have been forced to sell their children to buy food are truly devastating,” said Ray Hasan, Christian Aid’s head of global programs.
A prohibition on female relief workers would “only limit our ability to assist the expanding number of people in need,” he added.
The Taliban’s restriction comes at a time when millions of people across the country rely on humanitarian help provided by international donors via a broad network of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Afghanistan’s economic situation has worsened since the Taliban took power in August last year, prompting Washington to freeze billions of dollars in assets and foreign donors to slash funding.
Protests were violently dispersed by police after the minister of higher education banned women from universities, claiming that they, too, were not properly dressed.
The Taliban had previously excluded teenage girls from secondary school since retaking power in August of last year.
Women have also been forced to leave many government professions, are barred from traveling without a male relative, and are required to cover up outside the home, preferably with a burqa.
Female personnel are “critical to every part of the humanitarian response in Afghanistan,” according to UN agency chiefs, who have joined the campaign to remove the prohibition.
“They are teachers, nutritionists, team leaders, community health workers, vaccinators, nurses, doctors, and organizational leaders.
“They have access to people that their male colleagues cannot reach…. They save lives,” stated the Inter-Agency Standing Committee on Afghanistan, a grouping of UN and other international humanitarian relief organizations, in a late Wednesday statement.
“Their role in humanitarian assistance is non-negotiable and must continue.”
Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union are all members of the G7.
