The vice-chancellor for the Political Deputy Office of the United Nations has recently warned that the economic situation in Afghanistan will deteriorate. According to the organization, if the Taliban do not lift the restrictions imposed on women, Afghanistan will step into a “new stage of catastrophe”. Since the Taliban have deprived Afghan women of working in domestic and foreign organizations, dozens of aid organizations have put an end to their activities in the country. In addition, the UN has also stopped its weekly 40-million-dollar to Afghans beginning last month. However, the economic experts express their concerns and consider the aid as “vital”, warning that, if the aid stops, Afghans will face hunger that would be beyond the Taliban’s control. In the meantime, the citizens criticize the Taliban’s wrong policies and express their concerns regarding the deteriorating economy in Afghanistan.
Throughout the last year and a half, the country’s economy has been dependent on international aid; before the crisis, The United Nations distributed cash and food to families in need every month through trade unions and internal institutions. Later, those in need were identified by the district representatives and introduced to internal aiding organizations to receive aid.
Mohammad Omar, a resident of police district 6 in Kabul city, is one of the people who has received World Food Program (WFP) aid for a while. Showing his concern about the cancelation of the aids, he told Hasht-e-Subh: “Despite receiving the aids, our family’s economic situation has been really bad. I bear the shame and wait for hours behind the gate of the organizations just to be given a bag of flour, a bottle of liquid oil, and some beans.” He also added: “I have no idea what the worst situation than this will look like.”
Interviewing with Hasht-e-Subh, Golzada, a widower who lives in the Herat along with her son in a rented home, said: “My son works in a private company, and the salary he gets is only enough to pay for the rent, and the electricity bill; but, over the past two years, we have been living with occasional aids from organizations.” She also added that in the last two years, aid organizations have only provided her with some cash, flour, rice, oil, and other food staples several times. “My son only gets 5,000 Afghanis per month in the company he works for. We pay 3,000 for the rent and 500 for water and electricity in a month. Sometimes, I get an appointment with a doctor whenever I get really ill.”
Mrs. Golzada and her only son, who turned to the international aid organizations in the absence of other income sources, explained: ‘These organizations are very good for people. I haven’t paid for food for several months now. The organization paid me 6,000 Afghanis twice; they also gave me rice, oil, and flour every two or three months. It was because of this help that we felt a little relieved.” However, she was worried about what would happen the poor people like her if the organizational aids were to stop forever.
Meanwhile, Afghan citizens also express their concerns regarding the possibility of the cancellation of international organizations’ aid. Meeting with Neda Mohammad Nadim, the acting minister of higher education of the Taliban, regarding the deprivation of girls from education and the suspension of women’s work, Markus Potzel, the political deputy of the UNAMA, warned that Afghanistan will enter a new phase of crisis. Mr. Potzel called upon the Taliban administration to reconsider the decision that suspends women from working in domestic and international organizations immediately.
Based on the official statements, the United Nations has both directly and indirectly helped 28 million Afghans in recent years by distributing food items and cash, creating daily wage jobs for workers, and supporting businesswomen. Moreover, injecting cash into Afghanistan has also been one of the remarkable contributions of UNAMA to Afghanistan. So, some of the aid such as sending cash packages to Afghanistan once a week was one of the responsibilities that were directly applied through the United Nations. However, other aid such as the distribution of money and food to the poor citizens and the support vulnerable groups of business women were done by internal aid organizations.
Because of local traditions, most of the aid organizations carried out their missions through women: on December 24th 2021, the Ministry of Economy of the Taliban issued a letter to domestic and foreign organizations operating in Afghanistan, ordering them to suspend their female employees until further notice. The letter stated: “Based on its responsibility, the Ministry of Economy orders all organizations to stop the work of all female employees working in their departments until further notice.” Qari Din Mohammad Hanif, the Minister of Economy of the Taliban, warned that his ministry will revoke the license of the mentioned organizations if they violated or delayed the contents of the issued letter. Hanif further explained that he has received reports of women who did not follow Taliban’s hijab restrictions, and acted indecently in the workplace. Later, to defend his position, Hanif emphasized that, in his opinion, the work of Afghan women in foreign organizations was nothing but a “disgrace” to him.
The decision of the Taliban has had widespread reactions so far. Martin Griffiths, the UN’s Secretary General for humanitarian affairs, considers women’s suspension of work as an economic shock to aid providers to almost 28 million people in the country. Mr. Griffiths later stated that if the Taliban do not lift the ban on women’s work, the UN aid will no longer continue, because in his words: “Without women, we cannot provide aid to people, because women and girls are the primary target of humanitarian aid in Afghanistan”.
Taliban Talk with Organizations
Some reliable sources told Hasht-e-Subh that the UN and the Taliban have entered negotiations about lifting the suspension on women’s work. Based on the sources, during the negotiations, the Taliban did not clearly say whether their order included the UN too, or not. According to the sources, the female employees of the United Nations will proceed to work online until the end of January 2023, and the UN has demanded an official agreement that will enable women to continue working within the framework of the organization without any interference by the Taliban. The sources also added that a large number of humanitarian aids by UN were carried out by international, non-governmental organizations such as Pamlarena, the Swedish Committee, Save the Children, etc., but the aid deliveries have practically stopped since the Taliban suspended women’s work in various organizations. One of the sources noted: “the United Nations cannot carry out all its projects without domestic organizations, even if the Taliban allow the UN to keep its Afghan female employees to work.” He added that no donor, including the European Union, will resume aid to Afghanistan in this situation.
Cessation of Humanitarian Aid
Banning women from working in organizations has made almost 151 non-governmental organizations stop their primary activities in Afghanistan. In addition, according to the Central Bank reports, the cash aid packages from the international community have not reached Kabul in the past month. Based on the announcement of Da Afghanistan Bank, the last cash package, USD 40 million, of the United Nations arrived in Kabul on the December 14, 2022. The bank used to share a newsletter after receiving the weekly package through AIB, a private bank, but in the past three weeks, there has not been any report in the newsletter. The source also confirms that: “No shipment of the aid cash packages by the United Nations has entered (Afghanistan) since the women’s work suspension order was issued.”
On the contrary, The Central Bank of Afghanistan under the administration of the Taliban has rejected the cancellation of the UN cash aid cash to Afghanistan. The bank published a newsletter on Sunday January 8, 2023, saying that UN has not stopped its aid to Afghanistan. The Central Bank’s newsletter also added that Afghans need international aid to survive this crisis.
According to the reports, during the last year and a half, 21 packages worth 40 million dollars and more than 30 packages worth 32 million dollars has entered Afghanistan through AIB Bank. The statistics at the Afghanistan’s Central Bank also show that the total amount of cash aided by the international community after the Taliban’s return to Afghanistan reaches more than 1.793 million USD.
However, economic experts describe the cancelation of the UN aid to Afghanistan as “worrisome” and warn that poor citizens will bear the consequences. Zahir Behzad, an economic expert, told Hasht-e-Subh newspaper: “If the Taliban cannot convince the international community and donor countries, the aid will certainly stop, and most Afghans will lose their food supply sources. On the other hand, the Afghan currency value will further drop compared to the U.S. dollar. Mr. Behzad added: “The price of food will rise in the markets and people will not be able to afford to buy anything due to joblessness as the Afghan currency compared to the U.S dollar falls.”
Economic experts express their concerns about the halt in international humanitarian aid to Afghanistan. As the Children’s Protection Organization stated in its recent report that Afghanistan is currently facing the worst economic and food crisis in its history. According to the report, more than 28 million Afghans need humanitarian assistance.
The American magazine “Politico” wrote in an article that the Biden administration is considering a response to the Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women and girls. The magazine quoted a current U.S. official and a former official who are in the process of negotiations. Politico magazine also wrote that the proposed responses will involve new economic sanctions and stricter bans on the travel of Taliban leaders abroad as well as “restrictions on certain types of aid to Afghanistan.” Subsequently, Neda Mohammad Nadim, the acting minister of higher education and a senior leader of the Taliban, stated that the Taliban will not accept anyone’s request under pressure.