Taliban’s Office of Refugees and Repatriation in Kandahar has in a recent public letter banned women from working for refugee organizations in the Spin Boldak district amid widespread condemnation.
The letter sent to the district head of refugee and repatriation in Spin Boldak ordered the office to bar female employees who, according to the statement, are still working in several refugee organizations affiliated with the office despite the general ban on women’s employment since December 2022.
Taliban’s Office of Refugees and Repatriation has commanded the district head to ask several organizations to cease the employment activities of their female employee until further notice, which include Norwegian Refugee Council, International Organization for Immigration, UNICEF, Danish Refugee Council, and Human Resource Development Agency.
This comes amid the Norwegian Refugee Council’s announcement which said the organization has resumed operations in Afghanistan after the Taliban agreed to allow its female employees to return to work in June.
The Taliban supreme leader issued a decree in December last year banning women from working with non-governmental organizations and UN agencies, which sparked widespread condemnations in and outside the country.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Afghanistan has documented 50 edicts by the Taliban against women and girls between September 2021 and May 2023 that have severely restricted women’s and girls’ rights to education, employment, social life, civil and political participation, and curbs on freedoms, among other things.
