CNN
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The United Nations introduced Wednesday it has suspended some of its “time-critical” programs in Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban’s ban on female NGO workers.
In a joint assertion launched by UN aid chief Martin Griffiths and different humanitarian teams, it warned that additional actions will doubtless have to be paused because it can not ship “principled” humanitarian help with out female aid workers.
“Banning women from humanitarian work has immediate life-threatening consequences for all Afghans. Already, some time-critical programmes have had to stop temporarily due to lack of female staff,” the assertion learn.
“We will endeavour to proceed lifesaving, time-critical actions except impeded whereas we higher assess the scope, parameters and penalties of this directive for the folks we serve.
“But we foresee that many activities will need to be paused as we cannot deliver principled humanitarian assistance without female aid workers.”
It famous that the transfer comes at a time when over 28 million folks in Afghanistan require help because the nation “grapples with the risk of famine conditions, economic decline, entrenched poverty and a brutal winter.”
The assertion reiterated the UN’s condemnation of the Taliban’s restrictions on ladies’s rights. “We urge the de facto authorities to rethink and reverse this directive, and all directives banning ladies from faculties, universities and public life.
“No country can afford to exclude half of its population from contributing to society.”
The Taliban final week ordered all native and worldwide non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to cease their female workers from coming to work and suspended university education for all female college students in the nation. The transfer drew condemnation from all over the world.
In an announcement Tuesday, the united states expressed its “deep concern” and referred to as for “the full, equal, and meaningful participation of women and girls in Afghanistan.”
The new restrictions are one other step in the Taliban’s crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan ladies, after taking up the nation in August 2021.
Although the Taliban repeatedly claimed it could defend the rights of women and girls, the group has finished the other, stripping away the hard-won freedoms for which ladies have fought tirelessly over the previous 20 years.
Some of the Taliban’s most putting restrictions have been round training, with ladies additionally barred from returning to secondary faculties in March. The transfer devastated many college students and their households, who described to CNN their dashed desires of changing into docs, academics or engineers.
At least half a dozen main overseas aid teams mentioned they’re briefly suspending their operations in Afghanistan following the ban on female NGO workers.