Politics
WHO asks Taliban govt to lift female aid worker restrictions following earthquakes
- Shortage of female doctors hampers women’s access to care.
- Restrictions force pregnant women, trauma victims into crisis.
- Thousands of women left injured, homeless by earthquakes.
ISLAMABAD: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has asked Taliban authorities to lift restrictions on Afghan female aid workers, allowing them to travel without male guardians and help women struggling to access care after a powerful earthquake killed 2,200 people in eastern Afghanistan.
“A very big issue now is the increasing paucity of female staff in these places,” Dr Mukta Sharma, the deputy representative of WHO’s Afghanistan office, told Reuters.
She estimated around 90% of medical staff in the area were male, and the remaining 10% were often midwives and nurses, rather than doctors, who could treat severe wounds. This was hampering care as women were uncomfortable or afraid to interact with male staff and travel alone to receive care.
The September 1 magnitude-6 quake and its aftershocks injured more than 3,600 people and left thousands homeless in a country already dealing with severe aid cuts and a slew of humanitarian crises since the Taliban took over in 2021 as foreign forces left.
The Afghan health ministry and a spokesperson for the Taliban administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Taliban have previously said they would ensure women could receive aid.
Its administration in 2022 ordered Afghan female NGO staff to stop working outside the home. Humanitarian officials say there have been exemptions, particularly in the health and education sectors, but many said these were patchwork and not sufficient to allow a surge of female staff, particularly in an emergency situation that required travel.
That meant aid organisations and female staff faced uncertainty, Sharma said, and in some cases were not able to take the risk.
“The restrictions are huge, the mahram (male guardian requirements) issue continues and no formal exemption has been provided by the de facto authorities,” she said, adding her team had raised the issue with authorities last week.
“That’s why we felt we had to advocate with (authorities) to say, this is the time you really need to have more female health workers present, let us bring them in, and let us search from other places where they’re available.”
Sharma said she was extremely concerned about women in the future being able to access mental health care to deal with trauma as well as for those whose male family members had been killed, leaving them to navigate restrictions on women without a male guardian.
Peer Gul from Somai district in Kunar province, which was severely hit by the quakes, said many women from his village had experienced trauma and high blood pressure after the earthquake and were struggling to reach medical care.
“There is no female doctor for examinations; only one male doctor is available,” he said.
Sharma noted the growing shortage of Afghan female doctors as the Taliban have barred female students from high school and university, meaning a pipeline of women doctors was not being replenished.
The UN estimates around 11,600 pregnant women were also impacted by the quakes in a country with some of the highest maternal mortality rates in Asia.
Funding cuts, including by the US administration this year, had already left the health system reeling. Around 80 health facilities had already closed in the affected areas this year due to US aid cuts and another 16 health posts had to be shuttered due to damage from the earthquake, Sharma said.
WASHINGTON: Air travel turmoil deepened with more than 4,300 flights delayed nationwide on Monday following more than 8,800 delays on Sunday, with air traffic controller absences surging as the federal government shutdown reached its 27th day.
The Federal Aviation Administration cited staffing shortages affecting flights across the Southeast and at Newark Airport in New Jersey, while the agency imposed a ground stop at Austin Airport in Texas and a ground delay program at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport that delayed flights by an average of 18 minutes.
Southwest Airlines LUV.N had 47%, or 2,089, of its flights delayed on Sunday, while American Airlines AAL.O had 1,277, or 36%, of its flights delayed, according to FlightAware, a flight-tracking website. United Airlines UAL.O had 27%, or 807, of its flights delayed and Delta Air Lines DAL.N had 21%, or 725, of its flights delayed.
Roughly 13,000 air traffic controllers and 50,000 Transportation Security Administration officers must work without pay. The Trump administration has warned that flight disruptions will increase as controllers miss their first full paycheck on Tuesday.
On Monday, Southwest had 24% of flights delayed, American 18% and Delta 13% as of 5:00 p.m. ET (2100 GMT), according to FlightAware.
A US Department of Transportation official said 44% of Sunday’s delays stemmed from controller absences — up sharply from the usual 5%.
The mounting delays and cancellations are fueling public frustration and intensifying scrutiny of the shutdown’s impact, raising pressure on lawmakers to resolve the budget impasse.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Cleveland meeting with controllers on Monday, while the National Air Traffic Controllers Association union plans events at numerous airports on Tuesday to highlight the first missed paycheck.
The FAA is about 3,500 air traffic controllers short of targeted staffing levels and many had been working mandatory overtime and six-day weeks even before the shutdown.
In 2019, during a 35-day shutdown, the number of absences by controllers and TSA officers rose as workers missed paychecks, extending wait times at some airport checkpoints. Authorities were forced to slow air traffic in New York and Washington.
- US-backed plan aims to stabilise fragile Gaza ceasefire.
- Israel rejects Turkish troop participation under Trump’s plan.
- Netanyahu says Tel Aviv will decide which forces enter Gaza.
The Israeli lawmakers have been told that troops from Pakistan would likely be part of the international force in Gaza, alongside soldiers from Indonesia and Azerbaijan, a media report claimed.
The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee members were told during a closed-door briefing last week, according to a report in the Ynet news site.
It further stated that a US-backed international force to stabilise security in Gaza will include soldiers from the three Muslim countries.
Furthermore, Indonesia has publicly offered to send troops for the effort, whereas Azerbaijan had also agreed to contribute soldiers, The Times of Israel reported.
US President Donald Trump’s plan includes an international force in Gaza to help secure a fragile ceasefire, which began this month, halting two years of war between Israel and the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
Israel said earlier today that it won’t accept the presence of Turkish armed forces in Gaza under a US plan to end the war in the Palestinian territory for good.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said today that Israel has not surrendered its right to self-defence as part of the agreement brokered by Washington, Egypt and Qatar.
On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tel Aviv would decide which foreign forces to allow in Gaza.
But it remains unclear whether Arab and other states will be ready to commit troops to the international force.
While the Trump administration has ruled out sending US soldiers into the Gaza Strip, it has been speaking to Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, Turkey and Azerbaijan to contribute to the multinational force.
— Additional input from Reuters
- Rubio meets Jaishankar as US–India push trade talks.
- Highest-level contact since sanctions on Russian oil firms.
- Meeting sidelines Southeast Asian summit in Malaysia.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with India’s foreign minister on Monday, as the two countries push trade talks and ease tensions over Washington’s punishing tariffs.
Few details were released, but Rubio’s meeting with Subrahmanyam Jaishankar is the highest-level contact since the United States imposed sanctions last week on Russian oil companies, a key source of India’s crude supplies.
Jaishankar posted a photograph on social media showing him smiling and shaking hands with Rubio, saying he “appreciated the discussion on our bilateral ties as well as regional and global issues”.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of a Southeast Asian summit in Malaysia, which US President Donald Trump attended in person and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed by video link.
Relations between Washington and New Delhi plummeted in August after Trump raised tariffs to 50%, with US officials accusing India of fuelling Russia’s war in Ukraine by buying Moscow’s discounted oil.
Trump, who spoke to Modi last week by telephone, has claimed that the Indian leader has agreed to cut Russian oil imports — something New Delhi has not commented on.
Trump warned that New Delhi would continue paying “massive” tariffs if it did not stop buying Russian oil.
“I spoke with Prime Minister Modi of India, and he said he’s not going to be doing the Russian oil thing,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Asked about India’s assertion that it was not aware of any conversation between Modi and Trump, Trump replied: “But if they want to say that, then they’ll just continue to pay massive tariffs, and they don’t want to do that.”
India has become the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian oil sold at a discount after Western nations shunned purchases and imposed sanctions on Moscow for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
India’s foreign ministry said it was not aware of any telephone conversation between the leaders that day, but said that New Delhi’s main concern was to “safeguard the interests of the Indian consumer”.
— With additional input from Reuters
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