Kabul: After being prohibited from working for months by the Taliban government, Afghan women employees of a major international NGO have resumed their jobs in some provinces.

The order, which was first announced at the end of December and later expanded to include Afghan women working for the UN, prompted several aid organisations to suspend their operations in protest.

Jan Egeland, secretary-general of the independent Norwegian Refugee Council, said on Monday: "I am glad to confirm that we have been able to resume most of our humanitarian operations in Kandahar as well as a number of other regions in Afghanistan."

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He stated in a tweet that "all of our work is for women and men, girls and boys alike, and with equal participation of our female and male humanitarian colleagues."

It follows Egeland's announcement last month that authorities in Kandahar, the Taliban government's traditional stronghold, had said they would consider a "temporary agreement" to allow women to return to work.

According to Christian Jepsen, a spokesperson for the NRC, "this arrangement ensures the delivery of much-needed assistance while the authorities finalise national guidelines to facilitate women's participation in humanitarian efforts."

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The Taliban is reportedly working on guidelines that will offer more clarity, the UN has previously reported. The Taliban leadership has not responded.

Aid workers refute the government's accusation that the ban was implemented because women were not following the rules regarding the hijab. Only a small number of nations have a presence in Afghanistan, and neither a nation nor a global organisation has formally recognised the Taliban government.

In a statement released last month, UNAMA, the UN mission in Afghanistan, claimed that the ban "seriously undermines our work" and that lifting the restrictions was crucial.

"We must keep our attention on our goal of assisting the Afghan people. Despite the difficulties, we cannot disengage, the statement said.

According to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, funding for humanitarian efforts "remains at concerningly low levels, and the ban is accelerating this trend."

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All of UNAMA's Afghan employees, both men and women, have been instructed to work from home since the ban, but other organisations in the nation "have had different ways of handling the situation," he pointed out.