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Acting health minister appointed in Israel
POLICY AND PEOPLE
Taliban authorities allow some women employees to return to work ne day after the Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities ordered the closure of UN-supported widows’ bakeries in the capital Kabul, the authorities announced last week that they would allow 360 female employees to return to work. The Taliban said the rescind is in line with their July 6 edict that bans women from working for UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations except in the health sector (see Lancet 2000; 356: 321). “We have no objection if these women work at bakeries because they are not the UN’s regular employees”, said the Taliban’s Foreign Minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, giving no explanation for the sudden policy change. The Taliban, who now control 90% of Afghanistan and have implemented their own brand of Islamic law with strict controls over women, recently stormed the bakeries, threatening women with beatings if they did not close the premises. Stephanie Bunker, spokesperson for the Office of the UN coordinator for
O
Afghanistan, cautiously welcomed the decision, adding “[This] is a positive step in the right direction on the part
Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Women workers allowed again
of the local authorities in Kabul. However, the UN continues to be concerned about the impact of this edict on Afghan women overall”. Afghan women rights’ groups consider the decision to be a face-saving tactic. According to the UN “women and children who benefit from this programme are among the poorest and most vulnerable people in Afghanistan, and the loss of support will result in increased poverty and
possibly loss of life and health for women and children”. Nadia Naji, a spokesperson for Peshawar-based Afghan Woman Council explains “The tragedy is that woman can’t find a piece of bread and security, have little or no access to health-care services, and are strictly restricted to homes”. “The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] has already stopped providing food to woman because of Taliban’s harsh attitude. Now, [women] have no choice other than begging on the streets of Kabul and relying on international assistance to survive”. 24 bakeries, supported by UN’s World Food Programme, provide subsidised bread to more than 7000 families. Kabul alone, Naji says, is home to more than 50 000 women widowed as a result of the 21 years war. “The international community should speak out and rescue us … they [Taliban] have created the world’s worst human-rights situation” she adds. Kabir Ahmad
Acting health minister appointed in Israel
News in brief
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Call for HIV isolation camps Tfohlongwane Dlamini, an aide to Swaziland’s King Mswati, has called for the creation of camps “to keep HIV/AIDS sufferers from the wider public”. Talking at a national AIDS conference, he referred to HIV-positive individuals as “bad potatoes” that should be isolated from the general population. Health workers were shocked by the proposal; one in a number of controversial suggestions to have come out of Swaziland in recent weeks.
n Aug 15 a member of the Center Party Knesset member Roni Milo—who is the former Mayor of Tel Aviv—was appointed to Acting Health Minister by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but without parliamentary approval. Milo’s appointment is valid for only 1 year. Commenting on the appointment, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein stated that Barak’s move was “not unlawful” in light of the 1996 amendment to the Basic Law on Government, which allows the Prime Minister to choose Knesset members as cabinet ministers to provide a “solution for problematic coalition situations” when the ruling party no longer has a Knesset majority. Milo replaces Shlomo Benizri whose Shas religious party resigned from the government coalition in June, taking Benizri with them. Insiders say that Barak’s choice of Milo is a long-overdue payback to the latter for his help in convincing a fellow founding member of the Center Party, Yitzhak Mordechai, to withdraw from the prime ministerial race, thereby preventing the split vote that was predicted to cost Barak the May 17, 1999, elections.
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Even before sitting down in his chair, Milo vowed to rescue the Israel AIDS Task Force from nearbankruptcy. This non-governmental organisation has, for 15 years, been the only service in Israel offering anonymous AIDS testing. The Task Force’s estimate of 10 000 people in Israel living with HIV or AIDS is five times the official Health Ministry estimate. Milo has also promised to “improve all patients’ dignity” saying that more budget would be allocated to health services, that no hospital would have to leave patients in the corridors, and that as many beds as needed would be made available; promises that many say will be hard to keep. Although former Health Minister Benizri had quadrupled spending on AIDS programmes during his years in office, he has been attacked by the media for “trying to maintain public modesty”, specifically banning pictures of unwrapped condoms in public-service adverts. He was characterised by ministry professionals as studious, serious, and dedicated to pushing ahead projects that had been neglected.
$400 million promised to Africa The USA has pledged more than US$400 million to Africa in the fight against AIDS and tuberculosis. The new legislation, Tthe Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act, 2000, will fund AIDS programmes centred on education, voluntary testing and counselling, prevention of vertical transmission, and vaccine development. $60 million has been earmarked for tuberculosis-control programmes. In addition, the legislation will lead to the creation of a World Bank AIDS Trust Fund to provide additional grants to those nations most affected by the AIDS pandemic.
Rachelle H B Fishman
THE LANCET • Vol 356 • August 26, 2000
For personal use only. Not to be reproduced without permission of The Lancet.
Taliban authorities allow some women employees to return to work ne day after the Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities ordered the closure of UN-supported widows’ bakeries in the capital Kabul, the authorities announced last week that they would allow 360 female employees to return to work. The Taliban said the rescind is in line with their July 6 edict that bans women from working for UN agencies and international non-governmental organisations except in the health sector (see Lancet 2000; 356: 321). “We have no objection if these women work at bakeries because they are not the UN’s regular employees”, said the Taliban’s Foreign Minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, giving no explanation for the sudden policy change. The Taliban, who now control 90% of Afghanistan and have implemented their own brand of Islamic law with strict controls over women, recently stormed the bakeries, threatening women with beatings if they did not close the premises. Stephanie Bunker, spokesperson for the Office of the UN coordinator for
O
Afghanistan, cautiously welcomed the decision, adding “[This] is a positive step in the right direction on the part
Rights were not granted to include this image in electronic media. Please refer to the printed journal. Women workers allowed again
of the local authorities in Kabul. However, the UN continues to be concerned about the impact of this edict on Afghan women overall”. Afghan women rights’ groups consider the decision to be a face-saving tactic. According to the UN “women and children who benefit from this programme are among the poorest and most vulnerable people in Afghanistan, and the loss of support will result in increased poverty and
possibly loss of life and health for women and children”. Nadia Naji, a spokesperson for Peshawar-based Afghan Woman Council explains “The tragedy is that woman can’t find a piece of bread and security, have little or no access to health-care services, and are strictly restricted to homes”. “The ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] has already stopped providing food to woman because of Taliban’s harsh attitude. Now, [women] have no choice other than begging on the streets of Kabul and relying on international assistance to survive”. 24 bakeries, supported by UN’s World Food Programme, provide subsidised bread to more than 7000 families. Kabul alone, Naji says, is home to more than 50 000 women widowed as a result of the 21 years war. “The international community should speak out and rescue us … they [Taliban] have created the world’s worst human-rights situation” she adds. Kabir Ahmad
Acting health minister appointed in Israel
News in brief
O
Call for HIV isolation camps Tfohlongwane Dlamini, an aide to Swaziland’s King Mswati, has called for the creation of camps “to keep HIV/AIDS sufferers from the wider public”. Talking at a national AIDS conference, he referred to HIV-positive individuals as “bad potatoes” that should be isolated from the general population. Health workers were shocked by the proposal; one in a number of controversial suggestions to have come out of Swaziland in recent weeks.
n Aug 15 a member of the Center Party Knesset member Roni Milo—who is the former Mayor of Tel Aviv—was appointed to Acting Health Minister by Prime Minister Ehud Barak, but without parliamentary approval. Milo’s appointment is valid for only 1 year. Commenting on the appointment, Attorney General Elyakim Rubinstein stated that Barak’s move was “not unlawful” in light of the 1996 amendment to the Basic Law on Government, which allows the Prime Minister to choose Knesset members as cabinet ministers to provide a “solution for problematic coalition situations” when the ruling party no longer has a Knesset majority. Milo replaces Shlomo Benizri whose Shas religious party resigned from the government coalition in June, taking Benizri with them. Insiders say that Barak’s choice of Milo is a long-overdue payback to the latter for his help in convincing a fellow founding member of the Center Party, Yitzhak Mordechai, to withdraw from the prime ministerial race, thereby preventing the split vote that was predicted to cost Barak the May 17, 1999, elections.
748
Even before sitting down in his chair, Milo vowed to rescue the Israel AIDS Task Force from nearbankruptcy. This non-governmental organisation has, for 15 years, been the only service in Israel offering anonymous AIDS testing. The Task Force’s estimate of 10 000 people in Israel living with HIV or AIDS is five times the official Health Ministry estimate. Milo has also promised to “improve all patients’ dignity” saying that more budget would be allocated to health services, that no hospital would have to leave patients in the corridors, and that as many beds as needed would be made available; promises that many say will be hard to keep. Although former Health Minister Benizri had quadrupled spending on AIDS programmes during his years in office, he has been attacked by the media for “trying to maintain public modesty”, specifically banning pictures of unwrapped condoms in public-service adverts. He was characterised by ministry professionals as studious, serious, and dedicated to pushing ahead projects that had been neglected.
$400 million promised to Africa The USA has pledged more than US$400 million to Africa in the fight against AIDS and tuberculosis. The new legislation, Tthe Global AIDS and Tuberculosis Relief Act, 2000, will fund AIDS programmes centred on education, voluntary testing and counselling, prevention of vertical transmission, and vaccine development. $60 million has been earmarked for tuberculosis-control programmes. In addition, the legislation will lead to the creation of a World Bank AIDS Trust Fund to provide additional grants to those nations most affected by the AIDS pandemic.
Rachelle H B Fishman
THE LANCET • Vol 356 • August 26, 2000
For personal use only. Not to be reproduced without permission of The Lancet.