OIC urges Taliban to reconsider ban on women from working

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has called on the Taliban to reconsider the decision to ban women from working for NGOs. This comes right after the Taliban banned women from going to work for any domestic or foreign NGOs.

OIC has called the ban on women from working in NGOs and education “in violation of the purposes of Islamic law and the methodology of the messenger of Allah.” The statement was issued by OIC in its final communique of the Extraordinary Meeting of the OIC Executive Committee. In an earlier statement, OIC Secretary-General Hissein Brahim stressed that the OIC has been following with deep concern the developments of the “unfortunate events” in Afghanistan

He noted that “we conveyed, through my special envoy, messages to the de facto authority in which we emphasized the importance of the government’s fulfilment of its previous promises to open schools for girls in light of the solid and clear foundations of the Islamic religion that encourage education.”

The 57-member state group also called on the Islamic Emirate to protect human rights, particularly the rights of women and children, and voiced serious worries about “the increasing humanitarian and human rights situation in Afghanistan.”

The meeting of OIC members was arranged to discuss the recent decree from the Taliban to close schools and universities to girls and women in addition to the suspension from working in national and international NGOs. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Tur, urged the Taliban to drop a number of laws that discriminate against the rights of women and girls, citing both the “terrible, cascading effects” on their lives and the dangers they represent to the stability of Afghan society.