Three foreign aid groups, including Save the Children, yesterday announced that they were suspending their operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban ordered all non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to stop their female staff from working.
The announcement came as top officials from the UN and dozens of NGOs operating in Afghanistan met in Kabul to discuss a way ahead after the Taliban’s latest restriction delivered a blow to humanitarian work across the country.
“We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE said in a joint statement.
Photo: AP
“Whilst we gain clarity on this announcement, we are suspending our programmes, demanding that men and women can equally continue our lifesaving assistance in Afghanistan,” they said.
Saturday’s order issued by the Taliban authorities drew swift international condemnation, with governments and organizations warning of the impact on humanitarian services in a country where millions rely on aid.
The latest restriction came less than a week after the hardline Islamists banned women from attending universities.
The Afghan Ministry of Economy on Saturday threatened to suspend the operating licences of NGOs if they failed to implement the order.
The ministry, which issues the licenses, said it had received “serious complaints” that women working in NGOs were not observing a proper Islamic dress code.
The UN condemned the ministry’s directive and said it would seek an explanation from the Taliban about the order, which by excluding women “systematically from all aspects of public and political life takes the country backward, jeopardizing efforts for any meaningful peace or stability in the country.”
“I’m the only breadwinner of my family. If I lose my job my family of 15 members will die of hunger,” said Shabana, 24, a female employee, who had been working at an international NGO in Afghanistan for decades.
“While the world is celebrating the arrival of the new year, Afghanistan has become a hell for women,” she said.
The ministry said women working in NGOs were not observing “the Islamic hijab and other rules and regulations pertaining to the work of females in national and international organizations.”
However, female employees journalists spoke to dismissed the charge.
“Our offices are gender segregated, and every woman is properly dressed,” said Arezo, who works for another foreign NGO.
It remained unclear whether the directive affected foreign female staff at NGOs.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
EMBRACING TAIWAN: US lawmakers have introduced an act aiming to replace the use of ‘Chinese Taipei’ with ‘Taiwan’ across all Washington’s federal agencies A group of US House of Representatives lawmakers has introduced legislation to replace the term “Chinese Taipei” with “Taiwan” across all federal agencies. US Representative Byron Donalds announced the introduction of the “America supports Taiwan act,” which would mandate federal agencies adopt “Taiwan” in place of “Chinese Taipei,” a news release on his page on the US House of Representatives’ Web site said. US representatives Mike Collins, Barry Moore and Tom Tiffany are cosponsors of the legislation, US political newspaper The Hill reported yesterday. “The legislation is a push to normalize the position of Taiwan as an autonomous country, although the official US
CHANGE OF TONE: G7 foreign ministers dropped past reassurances that there is no change in the position of the G7 members on Taiwan, including ‘one China’ policies G7 foreign ministers on Friday took a tough stance on China, stepping up their language on Taiwan and omitting some conciliatory references from past statements, including to “one China” policies. A statement by ministers meeting in Canada mirrored last month’s Japan-US statement in condemning “coercion” toward Taiwan. Compared with a G7 foreign ministers’ statement in November last year, the statement added members’ concerns over China’s nuclear buildup, although it omitted references to their concerns about Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet and Hong Kong. Also missing were references stressing the desire for “constructive and stable relations with China” and
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
RSS