Afghan women aid cuts are hypocrisy, NRC head says

Norwegian Refugee Council head Jan Egeland criticised countries that demand rights for Afghan women while cutting humanitarian aid, calling that position “hypocrisy” in Kabul on Thursday.

Egeland said foreign governments were right to demand education for Afghan girls and work rights for Afghan women. But he said it was hypocritical to make those demands from abroad while cutting aid for food and even primary education for Afghan girls.

International aid to Afghanistan has fallen sharply since 2021, when the Taliban authorities returned to power. The United Nations said that by late August it had received less than 30% of the funding needed to provide life-saving assistance.

The humanitarian situation has also been worsened by natural disasters and by the forced return of millions of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan since 2023. UNICEF warned in August that acute child malnutrition had reached critical levels this year, affecting around one million children.

Egeland said funding cuts were disastrous for Afghan girls and women. He said the Norwegian Refugee Council had been forced to lay off female aid workers and female primary-school teachers for girls because it did not have enough money.

The Norwegian Refugee Council employs around 400 people in Afghanistan, including women, and provides food aid, education, shelter and protection for vulnerable communities.

The UN said about 175 centres offering services related to combating gender-based violence shut down because of lack of funding in the first six months of this year, affecting one million people.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Taliban authorities have banned girls from attending high school and university and imposed restrictions on women's access to public life and employment. Afghanistan is the only country in the world where girls' education is banned after primary school.

Egeland said denying girls education beyond primary school would leave Afghanistan without skilled female teachers, nurses, doctors and midwives in the future.

He urged governments in Europe, North America and elsewhere to reopen embassies in Afghanistan and engage with the Taliban authorities, whose rule is officially recognised only by Russia. He said engagement did not mean recognising the Taliban government, but should involve demanding rights for women and girls while offering them assistance.