Berlin (dpa) – Despite the massive curtailment of women’s rights by the governing militant-Islamist Taliban, Germany intends to resume certain development projects in Afghanistan. According to Development Minister Svenja Schulze, the principle of “with women for women” would be followed in this context. To the extent that women are working in and can be reached by the programmes funded by Germany, this commitment to ensuring that basic needs are met in Afghanistan would continue, she explained.
After the Taliban banned women from working for non-governmental organisations at the end of December, Schulze had temporarily suspended projects to support the basic needs of the Afghan population. She now says that Germany has been liaising with other donors, the United Nations (UN) and the World Bank to work out whether and how further support could be provided.
Schulze once again called for the infringements of the rights of women and girls to be withdrawn. However, she said that Germany needed to continue its activities to support the people in Afghanistan in view of the grave humanitarian crisis. Afghan women and girls would be “punished twice over if we suspended our development policy commitment in those areas in which women can remain employed and in which women can still be reached,” she added. Germany’s Development Ministry made a total of 187 million euros available for projects in Afghanistan last year. In addition, there is the money provided in the previous years. It was stressed that all the programmes work independently of the government.
Originally published at https://www.deutschland.de/en/news/germany-continues-certain-development-projects-in-afghanistan
