The European Union and 12 other countries have urged the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) to reverse their decision to prohibit Afghan women from working in non-governmental organizations (NGOs), the US State Department said. On Saturday, Afghan media reported that the Taliban government had ordered all local and international non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan to suspend the work of their female employees until further notice.

"The Foreign Ministers of Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States and the High Representative of the European Union are gravely concerned that the Taliban's reckless and dangerous order barring female employees of national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from the workplace puts at risk millions of Afghans who depend on humanitarian assistance for their survival. We call on the Taliban to urgently reverse this decision," the State Department said in a press release. The department said that women are central to humanitarian and basic needs operations.

"Unless they participate in aid delivery in Afghanistan, NGOs will be unable to reach the country's most vulnerable people to provide food, medicine, winterization, and other materials and services they need to live. This would also affect the humanitarian assistance provided by international organizations, as international organizations utilize NGOs to deliver such materials and services," the press release read. Earlier this week, many international humanitarian and human rights organizations called on the Taliban to allow women to work in NGOs.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP