War Child’s chief executive, Rob Williams, warned that the Taliban’s ban on women’s right to work “raises slavery risk for Afghan girls”
“If the Taliban is determined to push ahead with a set of rules which makes it impossible for humanitarian aid to be delivered, the consequences will be catastrophic. We call on the authorities in Afghanistan to reverse this ban on female staff and protect the lives and futures of millions of people under their control,” he told the Daily Express newspaper.
“This stand-off of aid agencies and the Taliban looks to me like the culmination of all the warnings of disaster in Afghanistan,” he said.
According to the UN, 97% of Afghanistan’s population live in poverty, and more than half are dependent on aid for survival. The Taliban leadership’s ban on women working for NGOs have forced major international humanitarian organisations, including the International Rescue Committee, Save the Children, CARE International and the Norwegian Refugee Council have suspended operations in the country.
The Taliban have rejected to calls to lift then ban, which follows an earlier order banning women from universities.
