U.N. Bread Withheld in Kabul

The United Nations closed down most of its subsidized food distribution operations in the Afghan capital Saturday over disputes with the hard-line Taliban regime on hiring women.

Hungry children, women clad in faded burkas and men in baggy Afghan trousers and knee-length shirts assembled as usual in front of 120 bakeries sponsored by the U.N. World Food Program but were told that there was no bread.

It was the first time in five years that the World Food Program has not distributed subsidized bread to Kabul’s needy residents. At least 282,000 people eligible to receive the bread were affected.

Taliban and WFP officials started new negotiations Saturday, but each side has rejected the other’s proposals.

The dispute centers on the subsidy recipient list, which all agree has been corrupted by a black market in both bread and the cards used to show who is eligible. The WFP has been seeking a new survey of Kabul’s poor.

But women must conduct the survey because only they can enter homes to assess poverty; men can’t because of rules forbidding them to look at unrelated women.

The Taliban do not object to the survey but vehemently oppose the recruitment of women, saying it goes against Islam.

The Taliban want women from the militia’s Health Ministry to conduct the survey. The WFP refuses, saying it could sacrifice the survey’s independence.

The Taliban, in turn, rejected a U.N. offer to have female WFP staff and Taliban-hired women conduct the survey together.