Taliban bar women from working for domestic, foreign NGOs in Afghanistan | 24CA News
The Taliban authorities on Saturday ordered all overseas and home non-governmental teams in Afghanistan to droop using girls, allegedly as a result of some feminine staff did not put on the Islamic headband appropriately. The ban was the most recent restrictive transfer by Afghanistan’s new rulers in opposition to girls’s rights and freedoms.
The improvement comes simply days after the Taliban banned feminine college students from attending universities throughout the nation. Afghan girls have since demonstrated in main cities in opposition to the ban, a uncommon signal of home protest for the reason that Taliban seized energy final 12 months. The resolution has additionally triggered outrage and opposition in Afghanistan and past.
The order got here in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, who mentioned that any NGO discovered not complying with the order may have their working licence revoked in Afghanistan. The ministry’s spokesperson, Abdul Rahman Habib, confirmed the letter’s content material to The Associated Press.
The ministry mentioned it had obtained “serious complaints” about feminine employees working for NGOs not sporting the “correct” headband, or hijab. It was not instantly clear if the order applies to all girls or solely Afghan girls working on the NGOs.
‘Are we not human beings?’
More particulars weren’t instantly obtainable amid considerations the most recent Taliban measure could possibly be a stepping stone to a blanket ban on Afghan girls leaving the house.
“It’s a heartbreaking announcement,” mentioned Maliha Niazai, a grasp coach at an NGO instructing younger individuals about points similar to gender-based violence. “Are we not human beings? Why are they treating us with this cruelty?”
The 25-year-old, who works at Y-Peer Afghanistan and lives in Kabul, mentioned her job was vital as a result of she was serving her nation and she or he’s the one individual supporting her household. “Will the officials support us after this announcement? If not, then why are they snatching meals from our mouths?” she requested.
Another NGO employee, a 24-year-old from Jalalabad working for the Norwegian Refugee Council, mentioned it was “the worst moment of my life.”
“The job gives me more than a … living; it is a representation of all the efforts I’ve made,” she mentioned, declining to provide her title fearing for her personal security.
Protests in opposition to college ban proceed
Also Saturday, Taliban safety forces used a water cannon to disperse girls protesting the ban on college schooling for girls within the western metropolis of Herat, eyewitnesses mentioned.
According to the witnesses, about two dozen girls had been heading to the Herat provincial governor’s home on Saturday to protest the ban — many chanting: “Education is our right” — after they had been pushed again by safety forces firing the water cannon.
Video shared with the AP reveals the ladies screaming and hiding on a facet road to flee the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”
One of the protest organizers, Maryam, mentioned that between 100 and 150 girls took half within the protest, transferring in small teams from totally different components of the town towards a central assembly level. She didn’t give her final title for worry of reprisals.
“There was security on every street, every square, armoured vehicles and armed men,” she mentioned. “When we started our protest, in Tariqi Park, the Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us. But we continued our protest. They increased their security presence. Around 11 a.m. they brought out the water cannon.”
Afghan girls are protesting in opposition to the Taliban’s resolution to ban them from the nation’s universities. Despite the rising world backlash over the regime’s assault on girls’s rights, the Taliban is refusing to again down.
A spokesperson for the provincial governor, Hamidullah Mutawakil, claimed there have been solely 4 or 5 protesters.
“They had no agenda, they just came here to make a film,” he mentioned, with out mentioning the violence in opposition to the ladies or using the water cannon.
Rollback of ladies’s freedoms
There has been widespread worldwide condemnation of the college ban, together with from Muslim-majority international locations similar to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in addition to warnings from the United States and the G7 group of main industrial nations that the coverage may have penalties for the Taliban.
An official within the Taliban authorities, Minister of Higher Education Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke concerning the ban for the primary time on Thursday in an interview with Afghan state tv.
He mentioned the ban was crucial to forestall the blending of genders in universities and since he believes some topics being taught violated the rules of Islam. He additionally mentioned the ban could be in place till additional discover.
Despite initially promising a extra average rule respecting rights for girls and minorities, the Taliban have extensively applied their interpretation of Islamic legislation, or Shariah, since they seized energy in August 2021.
They have banned ladies from center faculty and highschool — and now universities — and likewise barred girls from most fields of employment. Women have additionally been ordered to put on head-to-toe clothes in public and have been banned from parks and gymnasiums.
Afghan society, whereas largely conventional, had more and more embraced the schooling of women and girls over the previous twenty years of a U.S.-backed authorities.
In the southwestern Pakistani metropolis of Quetta, dozens of Afghan refugee college students protested on Saturday in opposition to the ban on feminine greater schooling of their homeland and demanded the speedy reopening of campuses for girls.
One of them, Bibi Haseena, learn a poem depicting the grim scenario for Afghan ladies searching for an schooling. She mentioned she was sad about graduating exterior her nation when a whole lot of 1000’s of her Afghan sisters had been being disadvantaged of an schooling.
