Martin Griffiths, the Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator of the United Nations has said to BBC that barring women from work will interrupt providing humanitarian aid to 28 million Afghans.
Martin Griffiths stated that humanitarian aid organizations operating under the umbrella of the United Nations definitely need the crucial support of women employees to continue delivering their life-saving services to the Afghan populace.
He emphasized that if the restrictions on female employees are not lifted, there is a high chance that the UN’s aid programs will get halted, considering the challenging situation in Afghanistan, which will lead to another catastrophic humanitarian crisis in the country.
“Without the presence of women, we can’t deliver our much-need humanitarian support to the most marginalized groups, including women and girls in the Afghan society,” Martin Griffiths said.
He further added the United Nations and the International Community cannot rely on the promises of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan authorities for they have failed to fulfill their promises regarding the rights of women and girls.
In his remarks, he rejected the misuse of the aid programs by the Taliban officials and said the humanitarian aid was distributed to predetermined locations across the country.
Following the ban on women employees working for national and international non-governmental organizations, a considerable number of aid organizations have ceased their operations in Afghanistan.
Prior to this, aid organizations had warned about the interruption of the flow of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan – where 12 countries including the European Union and the UN called the Islamic Emirate authorities to lift the restrictions on women working with NGOs.
