© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: An Afghan lady and a lady stroll in a road in Kabul, Afghanistan, November 9, 2022. REUTERS/Ali Khara
By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – A world assist company in Afghanistan has resumed operations within the southern province of Kandahar – the birthplace of the Taliban and residential to its supreme non secular chief – after its Afghan feminine workers have been allowed to return to work.
The transfer comes after Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Secretary Basic Jan Egeland informed Reuters final month that key Taliban leaders in Kandahar had signaled a willingness to conform to an interim association for NRC feminine assist staff.
“I’m glad to substantiate that we have now been in a position to resume most of our humanitarian operations in Kandahar in addition to a lot of different areas in Afghanistan,” Egeland, who was the U.N. assist chief from 2003-06, posted on Twitter on Monday.
“All our work is for girls & males, ladies & boys alike, & with equal participation of our feminine & male humanitarian colleagues,” Egeland wrote.
The Taliban administration was not instantly obtainable for remark.
The Taliban seized energy in August 2021 as U.S.-led forces withdrew after 20 years of struggle. In April, Taliban authorities started imposing a ban on Afghan ladies working for the U.N. after stopping ladies working for assist teams in December. U.N. and assist officers mentioned the orders got here from Taliban leaders in Kandahar.
The U.N. and assist teams have been attempting to carve out exemptions for girls to ship assist, notably in well being and schooling. The Taliban administration has been promising since January a set of written tips to permit assist teams to function with feminine workers.
Egeland mentioned final month that when he complained that the rules have been taking too lengthy, Taliban officers in Kandahar prompt an interim association may very well be agreed to permit Afghan ladies to return to work within the workplace and subject.
The Taliban say they respect ladies’s rights in accordance with their strict interpretation of Islamic regulation. They’ve additionally tightened controls on ladies’s entry to public life, barring ladies and ladies from college and highschool.
