The ban on women working in humanitarian organizations imposed by the Taliban less than a week ago has sparked outrage around the world. After the UN Security Council, 12 Western countries have already called for the immediate lifting of the “relentless and dangerous order” that threatens to plunge Afghanistan into even deeper misery.
Millions of people are at risk from the ban because their survival depends on humanitarian aid, according to a statement from the secretaries of state of the United States, Germany and France, as well as Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Denmark, Norway, Great Britain, Switzerland and United Kingdom Netherlands.
land on the edge
According to the UN, at least half of the nearly 40 million Afghans are at risk of starvation, and around three million children under the age of five are malnourished. After four decades of war, the Taliban’s resumption of power in August 2021 and the subsequent withdrawal by the West sent the country into economic ruin.