I've received a fund-raising email from Womankind Worldwide about training workshops for women in Afghanistan, giving women one of their few permitted ways to earn a living.
It says •"Taliban bureaucracy is trying to halt the work of women’s organisations that have managed to stay afloat. ... One of the few ways we can reach Afghan women under the oppressive Taliban regime is through skills training programmes. Women are permitted to train for work that the Taliban sees as functional ‘women’s work’, such as making clothes, weaving jackets, etc. This occupies their time and provides a chance of some financial independence.*
"But most importantly, it gives women an opportunity to come together. Within closed rooms, at trainings, women can give each other much-needed moral support. In a world where you’re excluded from education, employment, and participation in society, you can see what a lifeline this could be, can’t you?"
I was reaching for my credit card when I remembered that WW actively supports transgenderism, which fights for the removal of women's single-sex rights -- including, ironically, the right for women to meet or organise without men present. (In that, in places where trans-identifying men are legally accepted as women, it would be illegal for women to discriminate by excluding them from what was intended as a women-only group. See eg Tickle vs Giggle, https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womensrights/5376834-giggle-v-tickle-in-court-august-4 )
WW's website plays the usual trick of pretending transgenderism, which sabotages women's rights, is part of gay and lesbian sexuality, which doesn't harm anyone:
"We strongly condemn homophobic attitudes, discrimination and violence towards lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer people – and we support all organisations, individuals and movements working to end homophobia and transphobia everywhere. We stand with the trans community and are deeply concerned to see the current backlash against them."
That's really depressing, because women's right to single-sex spaces, facilities and organisations is not a luxury belief or a first-world problem. Male intrusion harms women in rich and poor countries alike. Some development charities are actively campaigning for women's single-sex toilets, specifically to reduce the number of attacks by men.
What do you do? I want to support women's training workshops in Afghanistan, but I don't think donations are ring-fenced for a particular campaign. And I very much don't want to support the withdrawal of women's single-sex rights anywhere in the world.
Does anyone know a better way to send funds to women in Afghanistan?