Taliban: NGOs With Women Workers Will Be Closed

The Taliban say they'll close all national and foreign nongovernmental groups in Afghanistan employing women. It comes two years after they told NGOs to suspend the employment of Afghan women, allegedly because they didn't wear the Islamic headscarf correctly. In a letter published on X on Sunday, the Economy Ministry warned that failure to comply with the latest order would lead to NGOs losing their license to operate in Afghanistan. The ministry said it was responsible for the registration, coordination, leadership, and supervision of all activities carried out by national and foreign organizations, per the AP. The government was once again ordering the stoppage of all female work in institutions not controlled by the Taliban, according to the letter. It's the Taliban's latest attempt to control or intervene in NGO activity.

Earlier this month, the UN Security Council heard that an increasing proportion of female Afghan humanitarian workers were prevented from doing their work, though relief work remains essential. According to Tom Fletcher, a senior UN official, the proportion of humanitarian organizations reporting that their female or male staff were stopped by the Taliban's morality police has also increased. The Taliban deny they're stopping aid agencies from carrying out their work or interfering with their activities. They've already barred women from many jobs and most public spaces and also excluded them from education beyond sixth grade.

In another development, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has ordered that buildings shouldn't have windows looking into places where a woman might sit or stand. According to a four-clause decree posted on X late Saturday, the order applies to new buildings as well as existing ones. Windows shouldn't overlook or look into areas like yards or kitchens. Where a window looks into such a space, then the person responsible for that property must find a way to obscure this view to "remove harm," by installing a wall, fence, or screen. Municipalities and other authorities must supervise the construction of new buildings to avoid installing windows that look into or over residential properties, the decree added. (More Taliban stories.)