Days after the Taliban banned secondary level girls from education, the World Bank has frozen its projects worth $600 million in the fields of health, education, agriculture in Afghanistan, a move Human Rights Watch resented by asking the international community not to “punish all Afghans” for the “Taliban abuses.”

A flurry of restrictions imposed by the regime will impact the intended objectives of the World Bank projects which require financing activities to support access to - and equity of services for - women and girls in Afghanistan. So, the Bank decided to freeze these projects.

Earlier this month, the World Bank approved a decision to use $1 billion from the frozen Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF) to support aid and other humanitarian operations in the country. Of them, almost $600 million ( £458million ) was to be used in implementing projects in the fields of health, education, and agriculture. [Read More]

Now in response to the Taliban’s move, these projects will be not sent for approval to the Executive Board of the World Bank until international partners and the Taliban have a better understanding and confidence that the goals of the projects can be achieved.

The punitive move, however, will hurt more common Afghans than those intransigent leaders of the Islamist regime. The World Bank plan was aimed to “support the delivery of essential basic services, protect vulnerable Afghans, help preserve human capital and key economic and social services, and reduce the need for humanitarian assistance in the future. Activists have also criticized the move.

“Afghanistan is reeling from a humanitarian crisis largely driven by donors’ decisions, especially the United States,” Heather Barr, associate director of the Women's Rights Division at Human Rights Watch, said in a statement on Wednesday. She further added, “Taliban abuses should not halt donors’ efforts to stem the humanitarian crisis and unblock the Afghan economy.”

“The Taliban appear to have stopped giving any pretense of appeasing donors in hopes of getting aid and recognition,” Heather said, terming the flurry of new restrictions a “signal” to the Taliban’s escalation of attacks on women's rights. 

In the statement, she made a number of suggestions to the international community—ending exemptions to the travel ban on senior leaders and avoiding meetings and being photographed that could be used by the regime to generate prestige—to deal with the growing Taliban’s restrictions on rights. 

Heather, however, recommended donors keep funding individuals and groups that are involved in defending rights and education through alternate mediums, in a manner that bypasses the Taliban.

(SAM)