Aid agency chief: Taliban say guidelines on female NGO staff resuming work close to finalization

By RIAZAT BUTT
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The head of a major international aid agency says key Taliban officials told him they are close to finalizing guidelines that will allow Afghan women to resume working for nongovernmental organizations. The Taliban last December barred Afghan women from working at NGOs, allegedly because they were not wearing the hijab — the Islamic headscarf — correctly and were not observing gender segregation rules. Jan Egeland, the secretary-general of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said Tuesday he was in Kandahar meeting officials with access to the Taliban supreme leader, who ordered the ban. He said they told him the guidelines were close to being finalized but didn’t give a timeframe or details when pressed.