Taliban reaffirms ban on women working for NGOs

Letter from the Taliban Ministry of Economy. Feature image source: X/@economy_af

On 29 December 2024, the Taliban Ministry of Economy shared a letter on its official X account (formerly Twitter), addressing the Agency Coordinating Body for Afghan Relief and Development (ACBAR), an umbrella group for non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Afghanistan.

The letter, dated 26 December 2024 and signed by Deputy Minister of Economy Mawlawi Mohammad Alim Jamil, reiterated the ban on employing women in national and international NGOs. It instructed NGOs to comply with a previous directive from December 2022 prohibiting female employment in the sector, although the Taliban later issued informal exceptions for women in education and healthcare.

The December 2024 letter warned that failure to comply would result in the suspension of the violating NGO’s activities and revocation of its operating permit. ACBAR was tasked with disseminating this directive to all NGOs operating in the country.

On 30 December 2024, Amu TV reported that, in response to the Taliban’s renewed enforcement of a ban on women working for NGOs, ACBAR had issued detailed recommendations to its NGO members on how to safeguard female staff in the health and education sectors.

According to Amu TV, ACBAR stressed that while exemptions in these sectors remained in place, NGOs should comply with Taliban restrictions, including to follow hijab and mahram (male chaperone) requirements, put in place separate facilities for male and female staff, and to “document and justify” the presence of female employees. Amu TV also reported that ACBAR had met the Ministry of Economy on 29 December to discuss the issue.

Apparently in response to the Amu TV story, ACBAR on 30 December released a statement clarifying that an internal email to Country Directors of member organisations had been “widely shared in error”.

The statement explained that the information was “taken out of context and misconstrued”, as it was intended for internal review by members, before potentially being put to the Ministry of Economy as suggestions. ACBAR also expressed regret that its message had been misinterpreted as an official statement and disseminated externally without consent or proper verification.

On 31 December 2024, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk voiced “deep alarm” over the Taliban’s move to revoke NGO licenses for employing women, warning of its “devastating impact” on humanitarian aid and urging the Taliban to reconsider the “deeply discriminatory decree”.

Remarks

Although the Taliban’s ban on women working with NGOs was announced in December 2022, the follow-up letter suggests a Taliban perception that some NGOs had not fully implemented the directive. While the Ministry of Economy’s letter did not mention exceptions for female staff in healthcare and education, it is notable that these exceptions were only granted informally by the Taliban after the first decree banning women from NGO work was issued in December 2022.

ACBAR’s apparent emphasis on complying with Taliban directives, however, indicates that while such work is still allowed, the Taliban now aim to increase scrutiny of women in these sectors. It is also possible that the renewed ban primarily targets women who continue to work for NGOs in HQ-based roles (who have often worked from home since December 2022), rather than those engaged in service delivery in the field.