CNN
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The Taliban administration in Afghanistan has ordered all native and worldwide non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to cease their female employees from coming to work, in accordance to a letter by the Ministry of Economy despatched to all licensed NGOs.
Non-compliance will end in revoking the licenses of stated NGOs, the ministry stated.
The ministry within the letter – whose validity its spokesman Abdul Rahman Habib confirmed to CNN – cites as causes for the choice the non-observation of Islamic gown guidelines and different legal guidelines and rules of the Islamic Emirate.
“Lately there have been serious complaints regarding not observing the Islamic hijab and other Islamic Emirate’s laws and regulations,” the letter stated, including that consequently “guidance is given to suspend work of all female employees of National and international non-governmental organizations.”
Earlier this week, the Taliban authorities suspended university education for all female college students in Afghanistan.
A spokesman for the Afghan Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the college suspension to CNN on Tuesday. A letter printed by the schooling ministry stated the choice was made in a cupboard assembly and the order would go into impact instantly.
In a televised information convention on Thursday, the Taliban’s larger schooling minister stated they’d banned ladies from universities for not observing Islamic gown guidelines and different “Islamic values,” citing female college students touring with out a male guardian. The transfer sparked outrage amongst ladies in Afghanistan.
It marks yet another step within the Taliban’s brutal crackdown on the freedoms of Afghan ladies, following the hardline Islamist group’s takeover of the nation in August 2021.
The United Nations on Saturday condemned the Taliban’s announcement.
“Women must be enabled to play a critical role in all aspects of life, including the humanitarian response. Banning women from work would violate the most fundamental rights of women, as well as be a clear breach of humanitarian principles,” the UN assertion learn.
“This latest decision will only further hurt those most vulnerable, especially women and girls.”
It additionally added that it could attempt to receive a gathering with Taliban management to search readability.
Amnesty International referred to as for the ban to “be reversed immediately” and for the Taliban to “stop misusing their power.”
“Women and girls should not be punished for demanding and defending their fundamental rights,” it stated in a press release. “The right to work for all people, especially women in Afghanistan, must be fully realized in accordance with international human rights law.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday additionally spoke out. “Deeply concerned that the Taliban’s ban on women delivering humanitarian aid in Afghanistan will disrupt vital and life-saving assistance to millions,” he wrote on Twitter.
“Women are central to humanitarian operations around the world. This decision could be devastating for the Afghan people.”
Though the Taliban has repeatedly claimed it could shield the rights of women and girls, it has actually performed the alternative, stripping away the hard-won freedoms they’ve fought tirelessly for over the previous twenty years.
Some of its most placing restrictions have been round schooling, with women barred from returning to secondary colleges in March. The transfer devastated many college students and their households, who described to CNN their dashed dreams of changing into docs, lecturers or engineers.