Sydney-based charity founder Maryam Zahid fears for her staff and the people they support as she grapples with the implications of the Taliban's latest restrictions on women in Afghanistan.
Less than a week after a ban was placed on women working at aid agencies in the country, Ms Zahid was forced to close the Kabul office of her organisation, which provides humanitarian aid to vulnerable women and children.
She says the female staff at her organisation, Afghan Women on the Move, are unable to work and are terrified of reprisals.
"We have been crying together. That was their only source of income," she said.
"[They asked me] if we can we burn down [the charity's] banners and paperwork in case the Taliban come and look for them."
Ms Zahid said dozens of families the organisation supported have been left with nowhere to turn.
According to aid agencies, around 28 million Afghans — more than half of the country's population - are reliant on humanitarian assistance.
"We were there to help them, give them food, shelter, medicine," Ms Zahid said.
"All of a sudden that has been taken away."
The ban was introduced just days after the Taliban barred female students from attending universities, sparking widespread protests.
The de facto authorities have accused female staff working for non-government organisations (NGOs) of not wearing the "correct" headscarf, or hijab.
Mahboba Rawi, the founder of non-profit organisation Mahboba's Promise, based in Sydney's north, has refused to contemplate shutting her agency's doors.
Ms Rawi's charity operates four orphanages in Afghanistan and supports thousands of disadvantaged women and children across the country.
She is determined to find a way around the ban to keep around 80 of her female staff employed.
"When circumstances change, I change the method of how I'm doing my work," she said.
"I will stand by my [employees].
"All women who work from Mahboba's Promise in Afghanistan are coming to work, they are staying in some of my orphanages ... because I won't give up on them."
Several NGO's, including Save the Children, the International Rescue Committee and the Norwegian Refugee Council have suspended their operations in Afghanistan in response to the ban.
Save the Children International's Shaheen Chughtai said a third of the agency's staff in Afghanistan were female.
He says the organisation could not provide critical services to women without its female workforce.
"No humanitarian organisation likes to stop its work ... we believe it was unavoidable at this time," he said.
"We could not work safely or effectively without the full participation of women in out teams."
Mr Chughtai said in Afghanistan's "socially conservative society", female staff were crucial in delivering services such as healthcare.
"Our female doctors, teachers, midwives, nurses ... are all playing a very critical role," he said
"Many of them are playing roles that cannot be done by men."
The United Nations has also announced some of its "time-critical" programs in Afghanistan would be temporarily stopped due to a "lack of female staff", with officials noting that female workers were "key to every aspect of the humanitarian response."
It came after the top UN official in Kabul met with a Taliban government minister in Kabul on Monday, calling for the ban's reversal.
On Thursday, the foreign ministers of a dozen countries including Australia, the UK, Canada and the US signed a joint statement, describing the ban as "reckless and dangerous" and warning it would put lives at risk.
"We call on the Taliban to urgently reverse this decision," they said in a statement.
"The Taliban continue to demonstrate their contempt for the rights, freedoms, and welfare of the Afghan people, particularly women and girls."
Mr Chughtai said the ban would have devastating consequences.
"We have to hope that the authorities see the impact that their decision is going to have on the lives of the most vulnerable Afghans," he said.
"Anything less than a reversal of the ban means a compromise."
Ms Zahid said images of Afghan women protesting the Taliban's latest restrictions on women made her hopeful for the future.
"Afghan women are resilient, they are powerful," she said.
"They're going to fight and they're going to emerge out of this disaster."
