The Taliban’s repressive policies continue to remove women and girls from public life completely. The movement has denied women education and banned them from most sectors of employment.
According to the 2021 socio-economic report on Afghanistan by the UNDP, restricting women from working could result in an immediate economic loss of up to USD 1billion or up to 5% of the country’s GDP. on women’s employme.
On December 24, 2022 the Taliban issued a decree that called for barring women from working in national and internatinoal nongovernment organizations.
This edict further threatens to plunge the country into a public health crisis as many NGOs heavily depend on female staff to provide services to the impacted communities. According to Sima Bahous of UN Women, 11.6 million women and girls are no longer receiing assistance. Due to cultural reasons, Afghan women can’t interact with male aid workers. The Taliban’s decree has made delivery aid to the vulnerable women and girls more challenging. As a result of the decree, many national and international NGOs have temporarily suspended their operations.
The Taliban’s ban on women’s education also has far-reaching economic consequences. World Bank in its 2018 report Missed Opportunities: The High Cost of Not Educating Girls, states that limited educational opportunities for girls and barriers to completing secondary education cost countries between $15 trillion and $30 trillion in lost lifetime productivity and earnings.
World Bank’s recent upbeat assessment of the Afghan economy stands in stark contracts to on-the-ground realities. A staggering 28.3 million people in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, the country’s prolonged drought, and the economic sanctions on the Taliban, and the restrictions on Afghan women and girls, paint a bleak future for the country.
The post The Economic Consequences of Ban on Afghan Women’s Employment & Education appeared first on Wadsam.
Source: Wadsam
