Taliban's ban on women working for NGOs in Afghanistan

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha on Sunday expressed his "exacerbated concerns" over the Taliban's order banning women from working in all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Afghanistan. Taha described the ban on women's work for national and international NGOs as "self-defeating" and "disserving the interests of Afghan people," according to the tweet posted by OIC.

OIC in a tweet said, "The #OIC Secretary-General, H.E. #Hissein_Brahim_Taha, expressed his exacerbated concerns over the reported ban, as the decision comes hard on the heels of the ban a few days earlier barring #Afghan women and #girls from accessing universities."

In a series of tweets, OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim Taha stressed that the decision shows a "willful policy" by the Taliban to further affect Afghan women's rights. Taha urged the Taliban to review its decision for the social inclusion of women and for the undisrupted continuation of humanitarian work in Afghanistan.

In another tweet, OIC stated, "H.E. Taha indicated that the move reflects a willful policy by the de facto leadership apparently seeking to further impact #Afghan #women's rights. He pointed out that this perplexing decision will not just deprive Afghan #women from a source of livelihood, it will seriously affect #humanitarian and relief operations conducted by a wide network of national and international non-governmental organizations in favor of vulnerable #Afghan communities."

"The #OIC Secretary-General qualified the ban on #women's work for national and international NGOs as self-defeating and disserving the interests of #Afghan people, vigorously calling on the de facto authorities to revisit this decision for the sake of social inclusion of #women and the undisrupted continuation of the much-needed international #humanitarian safety net in #Afghanistan," the OIC said in another tweet.

Earlier, Qatar expressed "deep concern" over the Taliban's decision to ban female employees from working with non-governmental organisations. Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement called on the Taliban to review its decision to allow women to work in the various jobs available to them in the organizations.

Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs stressed the need to "respect women's right to work," and emphasised that the freedom to choose and accept work is a "human right." In the statement, Qatar's Ministry of Foreign Affairs underscored that their stance is support all spectra of Afghanistan to obtain all their rights, including the right to work.

"The State of Qatar calls on the caretaker government to review its decision to enable women to work in the various jobs available to them in the organizations in a way that helps the distribution and flow of humanitarian aid to the Afghan people," Qatar's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

On Saturday, the Taliban ordered all local and foreign NGOs to stop female employees from coming to work in the country, according to Tolo News. The Taliban ordered all national and international non-government organizations to suspend the jobs of female employees until further announcement, Tolo News reported. This comes a few days after the Taliban ordered the closure of universities to female students across the country.