Afghanistan: Taliban ban women from working in NGOs

The taliban regime in Afghanistan has ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to ban their female employees from coming to work. The order was given in writing, with a letter from the Ministry of Economy sent to all authorized NGOs. The taliban thus take another step against the rights of Afghan women, after banning them from attending universities earlier this week. The Taliban, taking power by force of arms in August 2021, promised to respect the rights of women and minorities, but systematically attacks and cuts them.

Failure to comply with the order will result in the revocation of the licenses of said NGOs, the ministry said. The ministry in the letter, whose value and validity was confirmed by the official spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib, cites as reasons for the decision "the non-observance of the Islamic dress regulations" and other laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate, the official name of Afghanistan since the taliban seized power in a coup.

“Recently there have been serious complaints about non-compliance with the Islamic hijab (female headscarf, mandatory under Islamic law) and other laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirates,” the letter says, adding that, as a result, “guidance is given for suspend the work of all employees of national and international non-governmental organizations.”

Early last week the taliban suspended college education for all female students in Afghanistan. The decision fell like a bomb among the girls who were already pursuing their careers. Their feeble protests in the streets were violently broken up by the regime's policemen. In a televised press conference on Thursday, the Taliban's Higher Education Minister said they had expelled women from universities for failing to observe Islamic dress rules and other "Islamic values", citing female students traveling without a male guardian.

Both bans mark further progress in the Taliban's brutal crackdown on Afghan women's freedoms, after the Islamist group violently seized control of the country in August 2021.

Although the taliban have repeatedly claimed they would protect the rights of girls and women, they have actually done the opposite, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they have tirelessly fought for over the past two decades, under the weak government installed by United States and that was ratified at the polls. Afghan women got used to important advances in these two decades, but now in a few months they returned to the Islamic "Middle Ages".

Some of its most serious restrictions are related to education, with girls being banned from returning to secondary school in March. The move devastated many students and their families. Many saw their future frustrated in this way. Without high school, they will not be able to aspire to medium-skill jobs in commerce and other services, such as tourism and banks. And not to mention going to university, since they will not have a secondary level degree.

But the taliban were not satisfied with that ban: they evidently resented the sight of "surviving" female college students. So they decided to destroy the college career of thousands of girls who were already in college. Many Islamic countries, such as Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have condemned the ban on going to university and have called on the Taliban, with whom they maintain fluid contacts, to reconsider the cruel measure.

The ministry in the letter, whose value and validity was confirmed by the official spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib, cites as reasons for the decision "the non-observance of the Islamic dress regulations" and other laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate, the official name of Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power in a coup.