The Taliban have accepted the principle of letting women work for the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), but it will take time for this to be put in place, the NGO's director general said.
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"
Our female employees must be able to work freely with their male colleagues across the country,
" Jan Egeland said in Kabul on Monday after meeting with the Taliban ministers for foreign affairs, and for refugees and humanitarian work.
The ministers "
said they agreed in principle
", but admitted that "
this was progressing slowly and was going to take time
".
Local negotiations are underway
The NRC is one of the most active humanitarian organizations in Afghanistan.
Almost a third of its Afghan employees are women.
The NGO is trying to negotiate agreements at the local level in seven of the 14 provinces where it operates so that women can return to work there, according to Egeland.
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Like other NGOs, the NRC must adapt to fluctuating instructions from the Taliban regarding women's work and their varying application in the field.
In some places women can work with men, in others single sex is the order of the day and elsewhere they are simply banned from working, all at the whim of local Taliban officials.
Under the Taliban government in 1996-2001, women were largely excluded from public life and were not allowed to study or work.
Since their return to power in mid-August, the Islamists have tried to reassure the Afghan people and the international community, saying they will be less strict than in the past.
But in the public service, women have not yet returned to work.
And middle and high schools remain closed for girls, even though the Taliban said last week that they would resume classes "
as soon as possible
."
The NGO fears "the collapse of the economy"
In the meantime, the NRC has decided not to reopen its schools where girls are not yet allowed to study.
"
We cannot educate if we do not educate girls and boys alike
," said Egeland.
The NGO operates hundreds of primary and secondary schools in Afghanistan.
In recent years, the Taliban let NGOs educate girls in areas under their control.
During the meeting, Egeland also spoke of "
the collapse of the Afghan economy
", the most urgent problem in his eyes.
Read alsoThe Afghan currency plunges with the return to power of the Taliban
Damaged by more than 40 years of war, it is partly at a standstill, due to the freeze of international aid and Afghan assets held abroad which kept it on a drip. According to the UN, 18 million people, or more than half of the population, depend on humanitarian aid. And as winter approaches, Egeland fears the situation will get worse. “
It's a race against time,
” he said. "
People are going to die very soon
."
The international community has pledged, according to the UN, to pay $ 1.2 billion (about one billion euros) in aid for humanitarian organizations in the country, without however specifying the amount that would be allocated to the emergency aid.
But according to Egeland, donors "
are slow and late, hesitant and ask a million questions, even for life-saving aid
."
Her NGO itself is therefore finding it difficult to pay staff salaries and finance its programs.