TAKING A STAND

Aid Groups Halt Programs in Afghanistan to Protest Ban on Female Workers

Major multinational aid groups have said they won’t distribute aid until their female staff are allowed back on the job.

Foreign aid groups that provide crucial food and other assistance to the Afghanistan population have stopped work and say they won’t go back until the Taliban allows women back on the job. Over the weekend, the Taliban added female NGO employees to their increasingly long list of places where women are banned, including universities and private sector jobs. “We cannot effectively reach children, women and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff,” Save the Children, Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International said in a joint statement Sunday. The International Rescue Committee, which employees 3,000 women in Afghanistan, issued its own statement, warning that the vulnerable will be hurt most by banning women. “If we are not allowed to employ women, we are not able to deliver to those in need,” it said.