‘Interim Afghan govt working to lift curbs on women’

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) Head Jan Egeland has said that the interim Afghan government officials told him about second decree on the bases of which women will be allowed to work.

Talking to BBC, Egeland said: “The Taliban leaders told me that they are working on a second decree on the bases of which women will be allowed to move and most importantly they will be allowed to return to work.”

Earlier, the Ministry of Higher Education had announced the closure of women higher education nationwide while the Ministry of Economy halted women from working in foreign organization.

Egeland said: “I assured them that we will immediately resume our operation but now we have been paralyzed and without women staff members we could not work.”

He said if the acting Afghan government did not lift curbs on women education and women work, international assistance will be dried up.

“They should implement their promises, we were promised that we will work with our women and men staff. I am sure that they will honor their pledge and the new decree will be issued on the bases of which our women staff members will return to work.”

The NRC head said the recent decision had been taken by the Taliban leadership in Kandahar so he wanted to go to Kandahar on Wednesday where he will talk with the Ulema.

“There is need for a new decree to resume women education and work in line with traditional norms and values. We considered traditional values and norms in Afghanistan during different governments,” he said.

“We want the permission for women to return to work promptly, I told the Taliban leaders that we have days not weeks to wait. People are in terrible condition, they will die because the aid is limited. All assisting organization had stopped functioning,” said Egeland.

He said earlier that NRC will resume operation if the acting government show its readiness to allow women to work and education.

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