The Taliban terrorist regime has again shut down several of the World Food Program (WFP) bakeries over the weekend that are run by Afghan women and which supply approximately one-fifth of the bread supply for the Afghanistan capital city, Kabul. According to the U.S. State Department, the bakeries may have been reopened today.
In August 2000, the Taliban closed the bakeries, but reopened them one day later under pressure from the United Nations (UN). The Taliban forbids women from working outside of the home or for foreign aid organizations outside the health sector, even though foreign aid officials say that projects in health, education and the provision of food largely depend on women workers. Closing the WFP bakeries forces the women who worked there to rely on begging and charity in order to survive.
The Taliban has also closed four UN offices in Afghanistan that were instrumental to peacekeeping efforts in the country. The Taliban closed the offices in retaliation to the sanctions the UN placed on the terrorist army because of the regime’s violations of human rights and continual harboring of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden.
Media Resources: Reuters – May 19, 2001; Associated Press Online – May 21, 2001
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