Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark is supporting aid agencies’ decision to halt operations in Afghanistan, and a UN official has urged the Taliban to reverse its ban on women humanitarian workers.

The country’s Taliban administration on Saturday ordered all local and foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) not to let female staff work until further notice.

It said the move, which was condemned globally, was justified because some women had not adhered to the Taliban’s interpretation of Islamic dress code for women.

The news led to the beginning of a withdrawal by organisations such as the Norwegian Refugee Council, Save the Children, and Unicef.

Clark, who also used to head the UN Development Programme, said the aid agencies were forced to suspend their services or yield to an oppressive policy.

She condemned Afghanistan’s banning of female humanitarian workers.

“It’s a huge violation of human rights of women. Where do you draw the line? If the organisations simply capitulated to this edict from the Taliban, they would be seen to be going along with a huge violation of women’s rights,” she said.

“So it is important that big organisations are speaking out now as they have, and are saying they will suspend their operations while this policy holds.

“The problem is the Taliban and these horrible hostile decisions that they’re taking towards women.”

Clark said the Taliban had tried to present itself as more legitimate than the last time it ruled Afghanistan, but a leopard did not change its spots.

She expected the Taliban leadership would face strong ongoing pressure from the UN and other entities, and they would see the consequences of foreign aid groups withdrawing.

UN calls for Taliban to reverse the decision
A senior UN official has urged Afghanistan’s Taliban administration to reverse the ban on female humanitarian workers, and charities fear it will worsen winter hardships.

“Millions of Afghans need humanitarian assistance and removing barriers is vital,” UNAMA said in the statement, adding that its acting head and humanitarian coordinator Ramiz Alakbarov had met with Economy Minister Mohammad Hanif.

The directives barring women from working at NGOs came from Hanif’s ministry.

The orders did not apply directly to the United Nations, but many of its programmes were carried out by NGOs subject to the order.

Four major global NGOs, whose humanitarian efforts had reached millions of Afghans, announced they were suspending operations on Sunday. Other smaller NGOs had also announced suspensions, including UK-based Islamic Relief Worldwide.

The NGOs said they were unable to run their programmes without female staff.

More than half of Afghanistan’s population relied on humanitarian aid, according to aid agencies. Basic aid was more critical during the mountainous nation’s harsh winter.

Two spokesmen for the Taliban administration did not respond to queries on the suspension of humanitarian programmes.

NGOs were also a critical source of employment for tens of thousands of Afghans, particularly women, as the local economy had collapsed following the withdrawal of US-led foreign forces and the Taliban takeover last year.

One such employee, a 27-year-old female aid worker in western Afghanistan who asked for her identity to be concealed because she feared retribution, said that her NGO had shut its office on Saturday and she could not go to work.

The NGO, funded by a Western country, worked with women in the agriculture sector, helping them set up sustainable incomes.

She said she was worried that losing her job would have a huge impact on her family because she was a single woman and the sole breadwinner.

Her father was dead and her mother was a housewife, she said, adding that she supported four sisters, three of whom were university students who could not complete their degrees since the Taliban administration barred women from attending university last week.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ. 

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

While some women at the University of the South Pacific’s 14 campuses found working from home enjoyable during the covid-19 pandemic, others felt isolated, had overwhelming mental challenges and some experienced domestic violence, a Pacific survey has found.

Titled “University Women Remote Work Challenges”, the survey was funded by the Council of Pacific Education (COPE) and was supported by the Association of the University of the South Pacific staff (AUSPS)

The research report, released last month, was conducted by Dr Hilary Smith (an honorary affiliate researcher at the Australian National University and Massey University) for the women’s wing of AUSPS.

“This survey confirms that many of our university women had support from their family networks while on Work From Home, but others were left feeling very isolated,” said Rosalie Fatiaki, chair of the AUSPS women’s wing.

“Women with young children had a lot to juggle, and those who rely on the internet for work had particular frustrations — some had to wait until after midnight to get a strong enough signal,” she said.

Around 30 percent of respondents reported having developed covid-19 during the Work From Home periods, and 57 percent had lost a family member or close friend to covid-19 as well as co-morbidities.

In the survey there was also evidence of the “shadow pandemic” of domestic abuse and although the reported levels were low, it was likely the real incidence was much higher, said Dr Smith.

‘Feelings of shame’
“That was because of the feelings of shame (reporting domestic violence). In the Pacific Islands families and communities tend to be very close-knit groupings,” Dr Smith said.

Only two of the 14 USP campuses in 12 Pacific countries avoided any covid-19 closures between 2020 and 2022 — the shortest closure was two days in Tokelau and the longest at the three Fijian campuses of Laucala, Lautoka and Labasa lasting 161 days.

There had been no cases on the Tuvalu campus until the second quarter of this year.

“For women who had older children they said they enjoyed the time with their families,” Dr Smith said.

“And it was more difficult for those with young families,” she said.

She stressed the importance of being careful with the survey in relation to domestic violence.

“With this kind of survey, we had to be a little bit careful. We can’t say we got evidence of how much there is because it is a very tricky thing to survey and especially in this kind of survey,” Dr Smith said.

‘Sensitive issue’
“And because it is a sensitive issue and people tend not to identify and it is something that people tend to be ashamed about pretty much.

“The survey was totally confidential, and we set it up so no one would who the respondents were.

“It was impossible to find out through the ANU programme we used.

“But the fact people did give some evidence then I think that we know that it is actually quite significant, and we assumed that the prevalence was quite higher.”

She said that she was not saying there were more incidents, but from media reports, particularly in Fiji, she had suspicions that it was higher than reported in the survey.

“We were responding to the fact that there were other news reports in Fiji we referenced, and there has been the other report by the UN (United Nations) women about it,” she said.

The report “Measuring the Shadow Pandemic – violence against women during Covid-19” was released by the UN in December 2021 and the Violence Against Women Rapid Gender Assessments (VAW RGA) were implemented in 13 countries spanning all regions — Albania, Bangladesh, Cameroon, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Nigeria, Paraguay, Thailand and Ukraine.

There was general support of national statistical offices (NSOs) or national women’s groups and funding from the policy and Melinda Gates Foundation, which found an incidence of 40 percent of reported domestic violence.

‘There in Pacific”
“So, we weren’t saying that it was more than in other countries, but we were saying it was there in the Pacific.

“It could be more, or it could be less but because the evidence had been already highlighted in Fiji, we were just picking up on that.”

AUSPS had specifically asked for it to be followed up because of “widespread murmuring” that domestic violence was occurring.

“My colleagues at USP had indicated they wanted to follow it up because they had heard that it was an issue for some women,” Dr Smith said.

In her recommendations she had suggested counselling for women and a safe space on campus, but she was unsure if it would be acted on.

Limited counselling
There was limited counselling available already and some had suggested that it should be done through religious denominations, she said.

She said internationally people had struggled with mental health issues during the pandemic, so it was common to all communities.

“There was a relatively high incidence in Fiji, and we reported the findings from the survey,” Dr Smith said.

Among the recommendations for support during isolation was the setting up of a helpline and regular calls from senior personnel and support staff.

She said even if this pandemic had passed there were other events like natural disasters, politics, and wars to be mindful of.

“Human-made or nature-made or the prevalence of other pandemics, we are basically saying the university should be prepared,” Dr Smith said.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

A French Polynesian territorial government cabinet minister says the pandemic and climate justice have provided an opportunity to think about the progress made about action for women’s empowerment in the Pacific.

Minister for Family, Solidarity and Equal Opportunities Isabelle Sachet has told the three-day 14th Triennial Conference of Pacific Women it was a time to reflect on the implementation of the revised version of the Pacific Platform for Action on Gender Equality.

“Together, we will work towards the total fulfilment of women’s rights, climate justice and women’s empowerment throughout the Pacific Islands region,” she said.

Fiji’s Minister for Women Mereseini Vuniwaqa echoed the sentiments, saying the covid-19 coronavirus crisis had revealed and intensified the “precarious situation” of women and girls.

“A year since the World Health Organisation declared covid-19 a pandemic, life as we knew it has been on pause, changed and transformed while the inequalities we lived with before the pandemic have carried over to the new normal, left unchecked and sadly increased,” she said.

“This is especially in terms of their economic security, physical safety, health and access to decision-making spaces. I firmly believe that we cannot waver.”

Pacific Island countries have made strong commitments towards achieving gender equality and empowerment of women and girls during the conference.

Sustaining the momentum
Organised by the Pacific Community (SPC) and hosted by French Polynesia, the conference is aimed at sustaining the momentum towards gender equality in the Pacific.

The conference has brought together stakeholders from all sectors for high-level discussions and consultations on achievable targets and an action plan to progress gender equality in the region.

Fiji’s Vuniwaqa said the crises, while devastating, could open up opportunities for transformation and bold actions.

She said the conference was for women and girls who faced or were at risk of gender-based violence.

“This work is for all women and girls in the Pacific. Those who carry most of the responsibility for holding our societies together during the pandemic, be it at home, in health care, at school, markets and across all fields,” she said.

Palau’s Vice-President and Minister of State Jerrlyn Sengebau Sr spoke for the Micronesian group comprising Federated States of Micronesia, Guam, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau.

“Our Micronesian sub-region has made concerted efforts to advance our collective gender equality agenda,” she said.

‘Agents of change’
“We also acknowledge the significant role of women as active agents of change and their partnership is critical to our work.”

With the theme of the conference Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future – Empowering All Women in the Blue Pacific Continent, Sengebau said their efforts to date reflected the importance of developing their expertise in gender and women’s human rights as well as building capacity to mainstream and integrate gender across government and multisectoral responses to gender issues.

“It is also a key strategy for facilitating gender responsive budgeting through the collective resourcing of our gender equality agenda by all of government – that is the key to realizing political will and commitment at the highest level.”

Funding support for the event was provided by the government of Australia and the Spotlight Initiative.

Australia’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women Marise Payne said the past year had been difficult for the region and those challenges were not diminishing.

“The pandemic has forced us to confront an acute global health threat, border closures, economic insecurities and chronic supply chain interruptions,” she said.

“Every single one of us has been impacted one way or another by COVID-19. Globally, we have seen the industries that traditionally employ women – retail, tourism, the informal market economy – decline.

Disturbing violence increase
“That has distressingly coincided with an increase in both women’s unpaid work care responsibilities and very disturbingly increase in gender-based violence.”

Payne said the pandemic had compromised the accessibility and quality of sexual reproductive health services.

In some ways, she said the pandemic provided an opportunity to move ahead on a different course.

“Even before the pandemic, there were deep gender inequities between women and men so this moment of inflection and reflection gives us an opportunity to ensure that issues affecting women are addressed and that women play a critical role in decision-making and leading our economic recovery efforts,” she said.

More than 1000 people have participated in the conference, which was delivered via a blended approach of in-person and virtual interaction given that travel restrictions are still being observed across the region due to the pandemic.

The conference will be followed by the 7th Women’s Ministerial Meeting from May 4.

Josefa Babitu is a final-year student journalist at the University of the South Pacific (USP). He is also the current student editor for Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s student training newspaper and online publication. He a participant in the Reporting on Women’s Economic Empowerment workshop organised by the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) in collaboration with the Pacific Community (SPC).

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz