The head of a major aid organisation said Thursday that the Taliban have agreed to consider allowing Afghan women to resume work at the agency in the southern province of Kandahar, the religious and political centre for the country’s rulers.
The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at nongovernmental organisations, or NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab — the Islamic headscarf — correctly or observing gender segregation rules.
In April, they said the ban extended to UN offices and agencies in Afghanistan. There are exemptions in some sectors, like health care and education.
Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, met officials in the capital Kabul and Kandahar to persuade them to reverse the ban on the organization’s female staff.
“We have an agreement to start immediate talks on a temporary arrangement that will enable our female colleagues to work with and for women and others in Kandahar,” Egeland told The Associated Press. “If we get a provincial exemption in Kandahar, we should be able to replicate it elsewhere.”
