...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships...
organizations have bowed to Taliban
...Arabic for students...
pressure for male-only offices in Afghanistan, Tortoise has learnt. Unesco and Unicef have outraged fellow aid workers in Kabul who fear the organizations are normalising the Taliban’s extreme gender restrictions.
No women allowed. In early April, the Taliban banned Afghan women from working for the global body. Initially, the aid organizations presented a united front — everyone sent all their male and female Afghan staff home while they weighed their options until 5 May.
But Tortoise understands that the UN culture and education body, and the fund for children, have bowed to the Taliban’s demands.
- Afghan men working for the organizations on local contracts have been told to come back to work.
- Their work has been deemed ’critical’;
- while women have been told to stay at home.
Fragmented response. The news comes as at least 125 UN staff members signed an anonymous internal letter saying that the dangerously fragmented and "incoherent" response to the ban on female staff risked undermining the entire humanitarian response to the country of 40 million.
"One agency has since deemed all male staff ’critical’ and offered female staff to return to work without any assurances for their safety, against the recommendation of the UN country team," the letter said, although it did not mention agencies by name.
- The agency which offered female staff to return to work with no safety assurances is Unicef, Tortoise understands.
"Through its incoherent approach, the United Nations is sending the message to all its staff that female staff do not matter," the letter continues.
"It is sending a message to the world that gender apartheid is merely an inconvenient operational environment or a simple cultural difference."
What does this all mean for the millions of Afghan women who desperately need help? It will be even harder to get them aid. Given the Taliban’s restrictions on gender, it is almost impossible to reach half the Afghani population without female aid workers.
The UN said in a statement from Kabul late on Friday that the Taliban’s de facto ban on women working for its agencies "seriously undermines our work, including our ability to reach people in need". The statement condemned the ban as unlawful under international law but insisted the agencies’ work had to continue, adding: "We cannot disengage despite the challenges."