After the Taliban prevented girls from returning to secondary schools, the World Bank has halted four projects worth $600 million (£458 million) in Afghanistan.
The programs aimed to improve education, health, and agriculture, among other things.
The bank had previously stated that they had a “strong focus on ensuring that girls and women participate and benefit from the support.”
Following months of restrictions, the Taliban reversed a decision to allow the schools to reopen last week.
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According to the Taliban, schools will reopen only after a decision on female students’ clothes is made in accordance with “Sharia law and Afghan custom.”
International outcry has followed the decision, and on Saturday, demonstrators gathered near the Ministry of Education in Kabul to demand that the schools be reopened.
The World Bank initiatives aimed to provide women and girls in Afghanistan with the same level of access to services as males.
They are funded by the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund (ARTF), which was put on hold last year when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan.
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The World Bank’s executive board approved a plan to utilize more than $1 billion from the fund to help “critical needs” in education, agriculture, and health at the beginning of this month.
The money was not to be given to Taliban officials, but rather to be disbursed through UN agencies and aid organizations, the proposal showed.
“As a first step, the ARTF donors will decide on four projects of approximately $600m to support urgent needs in the education, health, and agriculture sectors, as well as community livelihoods,” the bank said in a statement on 1 March.
“This $600m will be supplemented with additional allocations from the ARTF during 2022 as conditions allow,” it added.
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“This phased approach is designed to be flexible and adaptive, recognizing the US State Department has also cancelled meetings with the Talibanat the situation on the ground remains fluid.”
According to the BBC, the initiatives will only be reopened when the bank is certain that its objectives can be reached.
The Taliban’s activities were condemned as “profoundly troubling” by officials from ten countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, in a joint statement released on Friday.
Meetings with the Taliban that were due to take place in Qatar have also been canceled by the US State Department.
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