Afghanistan: Single Women on Suicide Watch After Taliban Bans Women from NGO Work

Women supposedly wanted a right to work, then they took jobs and never did any work.

The NGO life is the perfect life for women, all of whom are lazy.

NGOs are just money laundering operations.

The Guardian:

It has been just days since Gulsoom, the only breadwinner in her family of six, has had no job to go to. But she is already feeling desperate.

It’s the second time Gulsoom has lost a role over Taliban restrictions on women. The first time was when the extremists came to power, and she had to leave her position in the Ministry of Social Affairs. Now, the 28-year-old has lost her job with a private organisation.

Gulsoom cannot bear unemployment. After losing her job in the ministry, it took months of effort, competitive exams, interviews and applications before she got her finance officer position in Kabul two months ago. But now, all that is gone as well.

All my efforts were [reduced to] zero with one command of the Taliban,” she says, adding that she has been financially independent since the twelfth grade of school.

Since regaining power, the Taliban has imposed more extreme restrictions on women, with the latest ban this week affecting women working in all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In one swoop, thousands more have joined the plight of the unemployed in Afghanistan.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs has said depriving women of work exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Many women who are the sole income earners for their families are deeply shocked and stressed.

Karishma, 27, was working as a public relations officer in a Turkish organisation. On Tuesday night she received a message from her office telling her she could no longer come to work. She lives as part of a family of eight and says her father is unable to work because of his age, while her older brother has fled the country in fear of reprisals from the Taliban for being part of the Afghan national security forces.

I’m completely in shock,” she says. “I was confused about how to buy flour, pay the rent, and everything. We are five sisters who were all students and employees,” she says. “But now we are all at home, grieving, wondering how to move forward with life.”

Karishma has a bachelor’s degree from Kabul University. She had struggled for years to get where she is now, and feels all her efforts have evaporated overnight.

The ban on women working comes just days after the Taliban suspended girls’ education at every level. The reaction has been strong. Women have taken to the streets to protest, and have been met with violence and detainment.

Countries and international organisations have condemned the ban on women working. International aid agencies say they are withdrawing from Afghanistan after the Taliban ban. Some, including Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee, CARE International, and the Norwegian Refugee Council, say they provide critical healthcare for vulnerable people, but the new bar on women working for NGOs means their workforce is effectively halved.

Unicef says the working ban will have a devastating impact on the provision of health services, food, and education to children. The EU announced that it is reviewing its aid distribution to Afghanistan.

To justify its ban on women working in local and international NGOs, the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy argued it was because of “non-observance of the Islamic hijab in the workplace”. A letter published by the Taliban stated that it recently received serious complaints regarding women not wearing the hijab and other non-observance of related laws and regulations. The ministry warned that any delay in implementing its order would mean the licences of the organizations would be revoked.

The Taliban is the only serious government on earth.

They are the only ones who take the serious issues seriously.

The biggest problem on the earth is liberating women, and if you don’t solve that issue, you’re not ever going to solve anything else.