Kabul, Dec 26 (IANS): Worldwide condemnation against the Taliban decision to ban women from working at domestic and international NGOs heightened with at least three foreign groups saying they will suspend operations in Afghanistan, media reports said.

The Swiss-based CARE, the US-based Save the Children, and the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRE), all said they are suspending aid operations in Afghanistan following the Taliban rulers' announcement that all NGOs should ban women from working at their jobs or face losing their licence to operate in the country, RFE/RL reported.

"We cannot effectively reach children, women, and men in desperate need in Afghanistan without our female staff," the three aid groups said in a joint statement, RFE/RL reported.

Later, the New York-based International Rescue Committee (IRC), which has been active in Afghanistan since 1988, said it was "dismayed and disheartened by the latest Taliban edict" and that it too would suspend operations in the country.

Western nations and international organizations expressed condemnation of the Taliban move, with the United Nations saying the decision "takes the country backward" and the United States, Germany, and the EU among those assailing the action.

In a Twitter post, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote that "American officials should stop interfering in our internal matters.

All those institutions wanting to operate in Afghanistan are obliged to comply with the rules and regulations of our country."

The Taliban on December 24 said in a letter from the Islamist group's economy ministry that domestic and international NGOs should suspend all female employees because it said the women were not in compliance with regulations regarding the wearing of a hijab, or the traditional head scarf, in the conservative Muslim nation.

The decision, along with an earlier move to ban women from attending universities, sparked rare protests in the country against the hard-line Taliban rulers and caused consternation among the workers themselves, RFE/RL reported.