WASHINGTON (AP) — For an unemployed worker at a Kabul, Abad-based aid group who helps battered Afghan women, she returns fearful and often tearful calls not only from her clients but also from her female colleagues.
a December 24 order The Taliban’s ban on aid groups from hiring women is crippling deliveries that help keep millions of Afghans alive, and threatening humanitarian services across the country. As another consequence of the ban, thousands of women who work for such organizations across the war-torn country face the loss of much-needed income to feed their families.
Get more from the Citrus County Chronicle
The United Nations estimates that 85% of aid NGOs are in Afghanistan operations have been partially or completely closed Because of the ban, it is the Taliban’s latest move to keep women out of public life.
Abaad was among those who disrupted its work. Its employees provided support and counseling to women who had experienced rape, battering, forced marriage, or other forms of domestic violence.
Clients working in Dimensions have told that without the group’s help, they fear they will end up on the streets of Kabul. For the worker herself and thousands like her across Afghanistan, they depend on their paychecks to survive in a shattered economy where aid officials say 97% of the population is now in poverty or at risk.
A colleague told her she was contemplating suicide.
The aid worker and others interviewed hoped the United States, the United Nations and others would stand with them and persuade the Taliban to reverse the embargo.
“That’s all we’re asking. They have to find a solution, they have to find a way to support people here in Afghanistan.” She spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for her safety.
Many of the world’s leading aid organizations that have ceased operations are urging UN aid agencies to do the same. They are asking the Biden administration to use its influence to ensure that the international community stands firm.
The United States is the largest single humanitarian donor to Afghanistan. It also has vested interests in suppressing security threats from extremist groups in Afghanistan, one mission it hopes to maintain a limited relationship with the Taliban.
A US official involved in the discussions expected an eventual international response that would fall somewhere between suspending all aid operations, which the official said would be inhumane and ineffective, and the other extreme of full compliance with the Taliban ban.
One proposal under consideration by the administration is to halt all life-saving aid to Afghans, according to another US official and two non-government officials familiar with the discussion.
The officials were not authorized to publicly discuss the ongoing deliberations and all spoke on condition of anonymity.
However, aid group officials and analysts point out the difficulty in narrowing down life-saving assistance. Food aid for sure. But what about other forms of support such as maternity care, which has helped cut maternal mortality in Afghanistan by more than half since the 1990s?
“Our suspension is operational imperatives,” said Anastasia Moran, senior humanitarian policy officer for the International Rescue Committee. “It’s not punitive. It’s not trying to withdraw favors. It’s not a negotiating tactic.”
The US invasion that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks ended that first era of Taliban rule. The Biden administration and aid groups cite its determination to avoid a repeat of the fractured, competition-driven international response so often reserved for Taliban abuses in the 1990s, including the then-repression of women.
Members of the United Nations Security Council gathered behind closed doors on Friday to consider the international response, after 11 of the 15 member states reiterated the council’s demand for “unimpeded access for humanitarian actors regardless of gender”.
The humanitarian crisis caused by the Taliban ban comes at a politically sensitive moment for Biden, with Republicans now leading the House of Representatives and vowing to investigate the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Rep. Michael McCaul, a foreign policy veteran who is newly in charge of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, described the crackdown on women as part of the “disastrous” consequences of the US withdrawal. McCall. R-Texas said his committee will press for answers from administration officials about their handling of Afghanistan policy.
“This administration promised consequences if the Taliban reneged on their promise to support the human rights of Afghan women and girls,” McCaul said in a statement to the Associated Press. “Unfortunately, it is not surprising to see the Taliban violate that commitment, and now consequences must be delivered swiftly.”
Almost everyone involved hoped that over the next few weeks, quiet diplomacy led by UN officials would lead to the Taliban softening their stance, allowing aid workers and aid organizations in general to resume their duties.
A US official said the United Nations and other officials meet daily on the matter with senior Taliban commanders in Kabul, who have access to the Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, and his aides in the southern city of Kandahar.
Some warn that the international community could face years of little influence over Afghanistan’s rulers.
Meanwhile, the mission to help isolated and battered women was clear. said Masouda Sultan, an Afghan woman who also works with the Abaad relief group.
“Our aim is to help these women. If they don’t get help, they will die,” said Sultan, speaking from Dubai.
prep area
Get updates and player profiles before high school games on Friday, plus Saturday’s recap with stories, photos, and video Frequency: Seasonal twice a week
Copyright 2023 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission.
