Swiss NGO in Afghanistan says ban on women is red line

Afghan schoolgirls pose in a classroom in Kabul on December 22. The country's Taliban rulers have ordered women to stop attending private and public universities until further notice. They have banned girls from middle school and high school, barred women from most fields of employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. Women are also banned from parks and gyms. Copyright 2022 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

Swiss aid organisation Afghanistanhilfe is still in Afghanistan, despite the Taliban’s ban on women working in NGOs. But a withdrawal is possible if the ban is applied, says its president.

“Without women on the front line – for example midwives, educators, nurses – we can’t provide help for girls and women,” Michael Kunz, who heads the largest Swiss humanitarian organisation in Afghanistan, said in an interviewExternal link with the Schaffhauser Nachrichten on Wednesday.

“In fact, the health system wouldn’t work without women,” he said. “The question is whether the Taliban are prepared to accept this collapse.”

However, if AfghanistanhilfeExternal link were to withdraw from Afghanistan, Kunz imagined the organisation could still maintain emergency hospitals there.

Kunz also criticised the Swiss authorities. “We have submitted several applications for humanitarian visas for our employees, who have since taken refuge in Iran, but in vain.” The obstacles are very high, he says. “Even photographs of torture and search orders from the Taliban are not enough for the Swiss authorities.”

‘Serious complaints’

Several NGOs, including Save the Children, the Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE International, have announced that they are suspending their activities in Afghanistan after the Taliban banned women from working in humanitarian aid.

On Saturday the Afghan economics ministry ordered all NGOs to stop working with women or face suspension of their operating licences. It said it took the decision after receiving “serious complaints” about the failure to comply with the “Islamic hijab” imposed in the country.

The Taliban returned to power in August 2021 and less than a week ago banned women from public and private universities on the same grounds. Women were already excluded from secondary schools.