When Khoshboo arrived at work last Saturday, she was surprised to see a large group of people outside her office building. At least 30 colleagues were awaiting her.
As she approached, Khoshboo asked why they were there. The answer was devastating: “The Taliban have banned women from working.”
Khoshboo, who manages handicraft projects funded by USAID, was forced to return home that day, along with 150 other women from their office.
“All the employees left, and later they told us that we are not allowed to return to work,” she says via telephone. “They said, Let’s wait and see, things may change. We are still waiting.”
Khoshboo, 25, graduated from Kabul University and was managing 150 female staff. She says that the Taliban’s decision to ban women from work has hugely impacted families and she can no longer answer the questions of her colleagues.
“I can’t tell how I feel anymore. I don’t have anything to say anymore. Nobody understands women,” she says.
A joint statement from 12 countries – Australia, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union – has condemned the ban on women working in NGOs, saying it puts millions of citizens of the country at risk.
“Women are absolutely central to humanitarian and basic needs operations. Unless they participate in aid delivery in Afghanistan, NGOs will be unable to reach the country’s most vulnerable people to provide food, medicine, winterization, and other materials and services they need to live,” the statement says. “This would also affect the humanitarian assistance provided by international organizations, as international organizations utilize NGOs to deliver such materials and services.”
There is a high reliance on aid in Afghanistan to survive. It is one of the most economically poor countries in the world. According to a United Nations report, 97 percent of people in the country do not have enough to eat.
Hamasa*, 42, is a university professor who has taught for 16 years. Since losing her job after the ban on girls attending university, she is no longer able to support her family or pay the rent on their house.
But the university professor is also worried about the future generations in Afghanistan.
“My concern is not only that we will go hungry,” she says. “The serious problem is that girls and the future generations of Afghanistan will be illiterate and the future of the country will be destroyed.”
After taking control of Afghanistan in August last year, the Taliban closed schools above grade six, and a year and a half later, they banned girls’ education at all levels in the country, including universities.
On December 29, Al-Hanafi Wardak, from the Taliban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, tweeted that a plan is underway to ensure girls education will resume in less than six months. “Based on Sharia principles and Afghan culture, education will be provided for our Afghan sisters in schools and universities with a safe environment and excellent standards,” he tweeted.
But women like Fatima*, 27 years old and the sole income earner in her family of eight, have lost hope for any change of Taliban policy.
“I was working in a private organization in its communication department,” she says. “After the Taliban order banned women from working at local and international NGOs, they told us not to come to the office anymore. We do not expect the Taliban will reconsider that decision anytime soon.”
UN Women executive director Sima Bahous says that with the work ban, the Taliban have effectively suspended aid to half of the population of Afghanistan.
She adds that as many as 11.6 million women and girls can no longer access aid without women working in the organistaions, and female heads of families, who make up nearly a quarter of Afghan families, have nowhere to turn and livelihood support.
Fatima, 27, says that once her father died, she became the breadwinner. She is worried their savings will run out in a month.
“There are eight of us at home. My father is dead, I am the eldest member of the family. I can no longer support my brothers and sisters. I am worried that in a month our savings will be finished and we will not be able to find even dry bread to eat. I worked so hard but now I just stay at home,” she says.
Echoing the sentiment of many of her friends and family, Fatima does not see how things will change anytime soon.
“My hard work has been wasted and I have no hope for the future. This is very painful for me.”
*Note: Some names have been chosen as pseudonyms at the request of the interviewees.
