Last year, Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations to bar female employees from coming to work, marking yet another crackdown on women’s freedom since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021.
The Institution of Islamic Cooperation has urged the Taliban to reconsider its decision to prohibit women from working for non-governmental organisations, calling it just a “violation of purposes of Islamic law and the methods of Allah’s Prophet.”
Last year, Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations to bar female employees from coming to work, marking yet another crackdown on women’s freedom since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021. This came after the government had already suspended university education for women and secondary school for girls until further notice.
The statement was reportedly issued by the OIC in its final communique of the Extraordinary Meeting of the OIC Executive Committee on ‘Recent Developments and the Humanitarian Situation in Afghanistan,’ according to news agency ANI, which cited local news channel TOLO.
Concerned about the “deterioration of the humanitarian and human rights situation in Afghanistan,” the group of 57 member states urged the Islamic Emirate to respect human rights, including the rights of women and children.
In a previous statement, OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim expressed deep concern about the “unfortunate events” unfolding in Afghanistan.
“We conveyed messages to the de facto authority through my special envoy in which we emphasised the importance of the government fulfilling its previous promises to open schools for girls in light of the solid and clear foundations of the Islamic religion that encourage education,” he said.
This month, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Tur urged the Taliban to abandon a slew of policies aimed at women’s and girls’ rights, citing the “terrible, cascading effects” on their lives as well as the destabilisation risks such laws pose to Afghan society.
‘Violation of…’: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Taliban’s ban on women NGO workers.
