Taliban crackdown makes delivering aid to Afghanistan harder

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Afghanistan is facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis.

Nearly two years since the Taliban took power, Afghans are facing extreme levels of poverty, and many are dependent on aid for their very survival.

But the Taliban's crackdown on women makes delivering that crucial help even harder.

The Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan has hurt many, but there rule has cut women the deepest.

Most of those in this Kabul factory try to earn a meager living as tailors.

But it's a far cry from what they dreamed of before.

Hafiza in the back used to be a law student at Kabul University.

HAFIZA, Former College Student (through translator): The worst situation is when your dreams are shuttered and you are punished for being a woman.

We are not even allowed to study and get educated.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: What women are allowed to do in today's Afghanistan depends on the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islamic law.

They are barred from public spaces and most forms of employment.

They can't go to school beyond sixth grade.

And, most recently, they're barred from working for any NGOs, including the U.N.

This has upended their lives, but also those of the Afghans whose survival depends on the delivery of humanitarian aid.

ANTONIO GUTERRES, United Nations Secretary-General: Let me be crystal clear.

We will never be silent in the face of unprecedented systemic attacks on women and girls' rights.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: But experts tell "PBS NewsHour" U.N. agencies are now divided on the best path forward.

In some cases, they have resumed male-only operations.

We spoke to one U.N. worker.

She asked to remain anonymous, for fear of losing her job.

U.N. WORKER IN AFGHANISTAN: Some females, they are the only person who financially support their families.

So, if they cannot work, so how they can support their family financially?

Everyone is worrying, and they're concerning about their jobs.

Actually, in here, I cannot express totally what we are feeling.

Every girl, every woman, they really lost their hope.

They cannot educate.

They cannot go to the courses.

Even they cannot go to the parks.

All the time, they are at home, which really depress everyone.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in the country is worsening, fueled by drought and a cratered economy; 97 percent of Afghans now live in extreme poverty.

Earlier this year, the U.N. launched an appeal for $4.6 billion dollars, but that remains largely unfunded.

Foreign aid groups like the Norwegian Refugee Council, or NRC, are calling on the Taliban to lift restrictions so they can continue to deliver humanitarian assistance.

NRC Secretary-General Jan Egeland met with key Taliban officials this week to try and press them to reverse the ban.

I spoke with him earlier today from Kabul.

Jan Egeland, thank you so much for being here.

It has been almost two years now since the Taliban took over.

And we know that conditions are worsening in Afghanistan.

Can you give us a sense of the humanitarian situation right now?

JAN EGELAND, Secretary-General, Norwegian Refugee Council: It's beyond catastrophic, really.

And it is very strange that there is not more of the limelight on Afghanistan, because we are probably having the highest number of people in acute need of humanitarian aid anywhere in the world; 28 million to 30 million people need help.

Millions and millions are now acutely malnourished.

I'm talking about children, breast-feeding mothers.

It's beyond belief, the suffering.

And, at the same time, we have problems in accessing population because of the ban on our female workers.

And we have donors who are turning their back to Afghanistan.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Can you explain why the ban on women working for organizations like yours makes it hard to do your work in Afghanistan?

JAN EGELAND: Really, two reasons.

First is, we cannot work without our women, because, according to the Afghan tradition, long before the Taliban, many men could not really contact, work with women outside of the family.

So when they say, work with your men only, the men cannot go to the widows, to single mother-led households and so on.

We would not do good work.

The other reason is also, we will not cast aside half of our work force.

What kind of precedent with that set for Afghanistan and for other countries that may contemplate that?

We were stopped to work the day after Christmas, when this ban came.

Little by little, we have been able now to get exemptions, so now we're back to three-quarters of an operation of what we had at the end of last year.

But we really should have had a much bigger operation, because the needs are growing.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: You recently met with Taliban officials, and we know the Taliban is an atomized organization.

But do you have any sense that the leadership in Kandahar or Kabul actually has control over the entire country?

JAN EGELAND: I think, yes, it's perhaps a more coherent movement than we believe.

But there is -- it is very clear that they disagree on a number of things.

Ministers here in Kabul, where I am now, disagree with the decision made by the emir in Kandahar, which was a ban on females working in our organizations, and, secondly, higher education, actually beyond primary school, for girls and women.

They say, we disagree.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: The U.N. secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, referred to what the Taliban is doing there as gender-based apartheid.

I wonder, do you share that characterization?

And in your conversations with Taliban leadership, do you have any sense that they're -- that they will modify those positions at all?

JAN EGELAND: Well, I agree that we call - - call it apartheid.

Call it egregious, systematic gender discrimination.

When I talk to my female colleagues here, basically, they say: They took away cultural activities for us.

They took away the education for our daughters, and now they took away our work.

The hopelessness is heartbreaking.

But, at the same time, it's possible for us little by little to operate.

So when I met with the female staff today, a majority of them have been involved now in some kind of work.

We have exemptions for education.

We have for health work.

We have for some activities in some provinces.

Some can work from home and go to the fields, but not to the office, et cetera.

What they also told me, however, was that they're very disappointed with their -- with the Western donors, who gave all of these phenomenal promises, and where are they now, they ask.

We see donors' funding dwindling.

And that is why we in NRC have had to lay off male and female staff.

It's not the Taliban.

It's the donor cuts that forced us to lay off work now.

I came out of Kandahar actually with promises of guidelines now soon that could enable the national ban to be lifted, and specific agreement in Kandahar, which is one of the most conservative places in Afghanistan, for an interim measure that would allow females to come back and work for women in need in Afghanistan.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: On that issue of donors pulling back their aid to organizations like yours, when you talk to those donors, how do they justify that to you, given the extent of the need there?

JAN EGELAND: Many of these are female ministers of development who say: No, we -- how can we fund a country with that kind of a regime that systematically trample on the rights of women?

We need to hold money back.

But my point is, we are then politicizing humanitarian relief, which is not going to the well-fed Taliban soldiers or leaders.

This is going to women and children.

So, it's the misconstrued belief that you are sort of punishing Taliban, when you're really actually undermining work for very poor people.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: Someone who has dedicated their career to humanitarian issues like you have, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but this has got to feel like an -- I don't know, frustrating or infuriating circumstance.

JAN EGELAND: Absolutely heartbreaking.

I was first time in Afghanistan during the previous Taliban regime, where we tried also at that time to get girls' education going, and we couldn't.

Then came the 20-plus years of NATO, American-led operations, trillions spent on a failed military campaign.

And now seeing the lack of interest, it is Ukraine morning, evening.

Of course, it's now also for all of us Sudan, et cetera.

We cannot go away from the 40 million civilians whom they left behind.

We didn't leave.

We're here still.

They left behind 40 million civilians and went for the door in August of two years ago.

WILLIAM BRANGHAM: All right, Jan Egeland of the Norwegian Refugee Council, thank you so much for being here.

JAN EGELAND: Thank you.