Taliban Bars Women From Vital Food Survey

Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban movement said Saturday that it would block a poverty survey by the United Nations because it involved hiring women, a decision that cuts off bread supplies for nearly 300,000 people in Kabul, the Afghan capital.

“We are not ready to compromise on our Islamic principles,” Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdur Rahman Zahid told the Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press.

Zahid spoke after the U.N. World Food Program had given the Taliban until June 15 to agree to a survey to ensure that food aid was reaching the neediest people in the city of 1.6 million. Otherwise, the bakeries would be closed.

“All the government’s authorities are ready to cooperate, but WFP wants to use some 700 Afghan women in this survey,” Zahid said. “We do not have any objection to the recruitment of foreign women, but it is based on our principles that we do not want Afghan women recruited for this program.”

The U.N. World Food Program has been warning the Taliban for more than a year that a survey was vital to verify that the bread, distributed to 282,000 people at 12% of the retail price, was reaching those most in need.

But the Taliban has consistently objected to the hiring of women, which is necessary because men cannot enter homes to interview women under Taliban rules. Women are barred from almost all work outside the home.