The United Nations has announced that some “time-critical” programmes in Afghanistan have temporarily stopped and warned many other activities will also likely be paused following the Taliban’s ban on female aid workers.
The UN’s Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths, as well as the heads of key UN agencies and international aid groups, called on Wednesday for Taliban authorities to reverse their ban on women working in the humanitarian sector and to overturn “all directives banning women from schools, universities, and public life.”
The Taliban-led administration announced the ban on female aid workers on Saturday. It follows a ban imposed last week on women attending universities. The Taliban also stopped girls from attending high school in March.
“No country can afford to exclude half of its population from contributing to society,” said the statement, which was also signed by the heads of UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization, the UN Development Programme, and the UN high commissioners for refugees and human rights.
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