The United Nations and the United States have condemned the Taliban’s decree in Afghanistan ordering all NGOs, whether national or international, to suspend women’s employment contracts until further notice.
«Any such order would violate the most fundamental rights of women, in addition to being a clear violation of humanitarian principles,» the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has warned in a statement.
It also advanced that the UN will try to meet with the Taliban leadership to obtain clarification on the order which, it warned, «will further harm the most vulnerable, especially women and girls».
«Depriving women of the free will to choose their own destiny, disempowering them and systematically excluding them from all aspects of public and political life is a setback for the country,» she concluded.
For his part, UN Secretary General Antònio Guterres regretted the decision, which «will undermine the work of numerous organizations working across the country to help the most vulnerable, especially women and girls».
«Effective delivery of humanitarian aid requires full, safe and unhindered access for all humanitarian workers, including women,» his spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, said in a statement.
In this regard, he warned that this ban, which affects the right of all women «to participate in the workforce,» «will cause further untold hardship to the Afghan people.»
On the other hand, the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, expressed his deep concern about the decree as a decision that «could be devastating for the Afghan people».
«Women are critical to humanitarian operations around the world,» he recalled in a post on his Twitter profile.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
