Five top non-governmental organisations (NGOs) have halted work in Afghanistan after women were banned from working for them by the Taliban government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Care International, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) and Save the Children said they could not continue their work “without our female staff”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The International Rescue Committee also suspended services while Islamic Relief said it was stopping most of its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban have threatened to cancel the licence of any organisation that did not swiftly comply with the ban.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A number of aid groups have since spoken out, demanding that women should be allowed to continue working for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The leaders of Care, the NRC and Save the Children said in a joint statement the organisations “would not have jointly reached millions of Afghans in need since August 2021” were it not for their female staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“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,” their statement added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since seizing back control of the country last year, the Taliban have steadily restricted women’s rights – despite promising its rule would be softer than the regime seen in the 1990s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Foreign aid groups halt work after Taliban bans on female staff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":88974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_108372464460192_245495985553329":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[25,31,30],"tags":[43,3124,219],"class_list":["post-88973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-afghanistan","category-news","category-world","tag-afghanistan","tag-foreign-aid-groups","tag-human-rights"],"yoast_head":"\n