Top U.N. officials said that, the United Nations is pushing the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) administration for more exemptions to its ban on most female aid workers.
Publish dateThursday 26 January 2023 - 20:50
Story Code : 264407
Afghan Voice Agency (AVA)_Monitoring, During a visit to Kabul, U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths said that his message during meetings with Islamic Emirate officials had been: “If you can’t help us rescind the ban, give us the exemptions to allow women to operate.”
Last month, the IEA – who seized power in August 2021 – banned most female aid workers and stopped women from attending university after stopping girls from attending high school in March. Griffiths traveled to Afghanistan after a visit last week by U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed.
Griffiths told Reuters that, following his recent discussions with the IEA, he was hopeful they would create a set of written guidelines to allow aid groups to operate with female staff in more areas with certainty in coming weeks.
“The next few weeks are absolutely crucial to see if the humanitarian community … can stay and deliver,” he said, while cautioning: “I don’t want to speculate as to whether we’re going to come out of this in the right place.”
The IEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment on its plans over guidelines.
During her visit last week, Mohammed met with the Shura – the leadership council that issues the bans – in the southern Islamic Emirate heartland of Kandahar. She said there is a concern that they may next prohibit “international women from international organizations and embassies.”
“It hasn’t happened so far,” said Mohammed, adding that they had been expecting a possible announcement all month. “I don’t say that it won’t, but clearly the pressure that we’re putting on has stopped that rollback as quickly.”
Griffiths said the United Nations would continue operating in Afghanistan wherever it could, but there was a concern that international donors might not want to commit to the huge financial cost of aid at around $4.6 billion a year.
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