>> Thank you.
William: Afghanistan is facing
an unprecedented humanitarian
crisis.
Nearly two years since the
Taliban took power, Afghans are
facing extreme levels of poverty
and many are dependent on aid
for their survival.
But the Taliban's crackdown on
women makes delivering that
crucial help even harder.
The Taliban's takeover of
Afghanistan has hurt many but
there role has cut women the
deepest.
Many here in the factory try to
earn a living as tailors.
The person in the back used to
be a law student.
>> The worst situation is when
your dreams are shattered and
you are punished for being a
woman.
We are not even allowed to study
and get educated.
William: What women are allowed
to do depends on the Taliban
strict interpretation of law.
They are barred from most forms
of employment.
They cannot go to school beyond
six grade and they are barred
from working for any Ngo.
Including the U.N..
This has upended their lives,
but also those of the Afghans
whose survival depends on the
delivery of humanitarian aid.
>> Let me be crystal clear.
We will never be silent in the
face of unprecedented systemic
attacks on women and girls
rights.
William: But experts tell pbs
newshour un agencies are now
divided on the best path
forward, and in some cases have
resumed male-only operations
we spoke to one un worker. (She
asked to remain anonymous for
fear of losing her job.
>> Some females, they're the
only persons who financially
support their families.
So if they cannot work, so how
can they support their family
financially?
Everyone is worrying and they
are concerning about their jobs.
Actually, here I cannot express
totally every girl, every woman,
what we are feeling.
Every girl, every woman, they
really lost their hope. @01:15
they cannot educate, they cannot
go to the courses, even they
cannot go to the parks.
William: Meanwhile, the
humanitarian crisis in the
country fueled by drought, and a
is worsening fueled by drought,
and a, cratered economy.
97% of Afghans now live in
extreme poverty.
Earlier this year the un
launched an appeal for 4.6
billion dollars, but that
remains largely unfunded.
Foreign aid groups like the
Norwegian refugee council, or
nrc, are calling on the Taliban
to lift restrictions so they can
continue to deliver humanitarian
assistance.
Nrc secretary general Jan
Egeland met with key Taliban
officials this week to try and
press them to reverse the ban.
I spoke with him earlier today
from kabul.
Jan Egeland, thank you so much
it has been almost two years now
for being here.
Since the Taliban took over. And
we know that conditions are
worsening in Afghanistan can you
.
Can you give us a sense of the
humanitarian situation right
now?
>> It's beyond catastrophic,
really, and it is very strange
that there is not more of the
limelight on Afghanistan because
we are probably having the
highest number of people in need
of humanitarian aid anywhere in
the world.
28 million to 30 million people
need help.
Millions and millions are now
acutely malnourished.
I'm talking about children
breast-feeding mothers.
It's it's it's beyond belief,
the suffering.
And at the same time, we have
problems in accessing a
population because of the ban on
our female workers.
And we have a donors who are
turning their back to
Afghanistan.
William: Can you explain why the
ban on women working for
organizations like yours makes
it hard to do your work in
Afghanistan?
>> Really two reasons. First is
we cannot work without a women
because according to the Afghan
tradition, long before the
Taliban, many men could not
really contact work with women
, outside of the family.
So when they say, work with your
men only the men cannot go to
, the widows, to single mother
households and so on.
We would not do good work.
The other reason is also we we
will not cast aside half of our
of our workforce.
What kind of precedent with that
set for Afghanistan and for
other countries that may
contemplate that.
So we forced work or we was we
felt we were stopped to work the
day after Christmas when this
came.
Little by little, we've been
able now to get exemptions, so
now we're back to three quarters
of an operation of what we had
at the end of last year, but we
really have had a much bigger
operation because the needs are
growing.
William: You recently met with
Taliban officials, and we know
the Taliban is an atomized
organization, but do you have
any sense that the leadership in
kandahar or kabul actually has
control over the entire country?
>> I think, yes, it's perhaps a
more coherent movement than we
believe.
But it is very clear that they
disagree on a number of things.
Ministers here in kabul, where I
am now, disagree with the
decision made by the emir in
kandahar, which was a ban on
females working in our
organizations, and secondly,
higher education actually and
primary school for girls and
women.
They say we disagree.
William: The U.N. Secretary
general, Antonio guterres,
referred to what the Taliban is
doing there as as gender-based
apartheid.
Do you share that
characterization?
And in your conversations with
Taliban leadership, do you have
any sense that they're that they
will modify those positions at
all?
>> I agree.
Call it apartheid, call it, you
know, egregious, systematic
gender discrimination.
When I talk to my female
colleagues here, basically they
say they took away cultural
activities for us, they took
away the education for our
daughters, and now they took
away our work.
The hopelessness is
heartbreaking.
But at the same time, it's
possible for us little by little
to operate, so when I met with
the female staff today, a
majority of them have been
involved now in some kind of
work.
We have exemptions for
education, we have for health
work, we have for some
activities in some provinces.
Some can work from home and go
to the fields, but not to the
office, etc.
What they also told me, however,
was that they're very
disappointed with the western
donors who gave all of these
phenomenal promises, and where
are they now, they ask.
We see donors funding dwindling
and that is why nrc have had to
lay off male and female staff is
not the Taliban.
It's the donor cuts that forced
us to lay off work now.
I came out of kandahar actually
with promises of guidelines now
soon that could enable the
national ban to be lifted. And
specific agreement in kandahar,
which is one of the most
conservative places in
Afghanistan, for an interim
measure that would allow a
females to come back and work
for women in the in Afghanistan.
William: On that issue of donors
pulling back their aid to
organizations like yours, when
you talk to those donors, how do
they justify that to you, given
the extent of the need there?
>> Many of these are female
ministers of development who
say, no, how can we fund a
country with that kind of a
regime that systematically
tramples on the rights of women?
We need to hold money back.
But my point is we are then
politicizing humanitarian
relief, which is not going to
the well-fed Taliban soldiers or
leaders, this is going to women
and children.
So it's the miss misconstrued
belief that you are sort of
punishing Taliban when you're
really actually undermining work
for very poor people.
William: Someone who has
dedicated their career to
humanitarian issues like you
have, I don't want to put words
in your mouth, but this has got
to feel like an, I don't know,
frustrating or infuriating
circumstance.
>> Absolutely heartbreaking.
I was first time in Afghanistan
during the previous Taliban
regime where we tried also at
that time to get girls education
going and we couldn't.
Then came the 20 plus years of
nato's American led operations.
Trillions spent on a failed
military campaign.
And now seeing the lack of
interest, it is Ukraine morning,
evening, of course, it's now
also for all of us, Sudan, etc..
We cannot go away from the 40
million civilians whom we left
behind, who they left behind. We
did not leave.
We are here.
They left behind 40 million
civilians and went for the door
in August of two years to go.