(United Nations) Despite the bans on women from employment and education imposed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the United Nations will continue to provide humanitarian aid to this poor country in South Asia by favoring “dialogue” rather than ” pressure” on the regime, an official of the organization said on Thursday.
Ramiz Alakbarov, Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary General and Humanitarian Coordinator for Afghanistan, also announced during a press briefing in New York that the head of the United Nations humanitarian agency Martin Griffiths would soon visit Afghanistan. .
The Taliban have just banned women and girls from pursuing university studies and working in national or international NGOs, causing an outcry in the West.
The G7, the Security Council and UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres demanded that Kabul “urgently” reverse these “irresponsible and dangerous” restrictions which are “unjustifiable violations of human rights”.
However, there is no question of ceasing to provide aid to “the more than 28 million people who need it” in this country, which is one of the poorest on the planet, affirmed Mr. Alakbarov.
It is “absolutely fundamental never to talk about stopping humanitarian assistance for the people of Afghanistan”, he said, returning from a visit to this country where the Taliban regained power in August 2021. during the chaotic departure of the American armed forces.
Withholding aid would be a ‘last resort’ decision that we will never take […] The Afghan population has nothing to do with this situation,” insisted the UN official.
Asked about the international condemnations of the banishment of women, Mr. Alakbarov considered that on the strength of his “exchanges with the Taliban, the best way to reach a solution is through dialogue, not pressure”.
“This movement has not responded favorably to pressure in the past,” he recalled, referring to this rigorous Islamic regime in power from 1996 to 2001.
The UN official said he was only working for “one thing, to unblock the situation, to negotiate so that women return to work and girls to school”.
In this regard, Mr. Alakbarov announced the arrival in Afghanistan “in a few weeks” of his boss Martin Griffiths, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and UN Emergency Relief Coordinator.
When “you are a humanitarian, you are involved in dialogue, you provide aid, whether you like what is happening on the ground or not”, he concluded.