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Afghan women return to work, as do delighted UN female staff
Following the return of female radio announcers in Kabul early this week, four female staff of the United Nations have also resumed their jobs after a lay-off of almost two years.
Following the return of female radio announcers in Kabul early this week, four female staff of the United Nations have also resumed their jobs after a lay-off of almost two years.
''This is big news for us, and for the Afghan women. We are delighted to have four of our female staff back at work,'' Yousuf Hassan, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) told reporters in Islamabad on Friday. Hassan said the return of the women, whose names were not immediately available, marked a new beginning for all the Afghan women, who had been barred from work and education by the Taliban, who restricted women to homes once they took Kabul in September 1996.
The Taliban also shut down almost all girls schools, before allowing some of them to reopen for girls under ten years of age in different parts of the country.
They tolerated private home schools which had been run by former teachers and intellectuals, mostly with funding from foreign NGOs. A spokesman for the UN childrens fund, Chulo Hyun, said a UNICEF delegation had already arrived and picked up contacts with local NGOs in Faizabad, capital of the far-northern Afghan province of Badakhshan.
''There is an urgent need of for 'nutritional intervention' particularly for pregnant women and malnourished children,'' Hyun said, adding that high-protein food was already being distributed among some of the needy. The official also welcomed reports from the western town of Mazar, the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and from Kabul that girls' schools were being ordered to reopen.
''This is big news for us, and for the Afghan women. We are delighted to have four of our female staff back at work,'' Yousuf Hassan, a spokesman for the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) told reporters in Islamabad on Friday. Hassan said the return of the women, whose names were not immediately available, marked a new beginning for all the Afghan women, who had been barred from work and education by the Taliban, who restricted women to homes once they took Kabul in September 1996.
The Taliban also shut down almost all girls schools, before allowing some of them to reopen for girls under ten years of age in different parts of the country.
They tolerated private home schools which had been run by former teachers and intellectuals, mostly with funding from foreign NGOs. A spokesman for the UN childrens fund, Chulo Hyun, said a UNICEF delegation had already arrived and picked up contacts with local NGOs in Faizabad, capital of the far-northern Afghan province of Badakhshan.
''There is an urgent need of for 'nutritional intervention' particularly for pregnant women and malnourished children,'' Hyun said, adding that high-protein food was already being distributed among some of the needy. The official also welcomed reports from the western town of Mazar, the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif and from Kabul that girls' schools were being ordered to reopen.
Bureau Report