KARUNA SHINSHO, CNN ANCOHR: The United Nations and Afghanistan's ruling Taliban are in talks to keep a crucial food aid program from shutting down. The U.N.'s World Food Program says it may close its subsidized bakeries. That's because the Taliban maintain Afghan women cannot work on a survey with those who benefit from the program. Syed Talat Hussain reports from Islamabad.</s>SYED TALAT HUSSAIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): By next week, these Afghans might not have anything to eat. A dispute between Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia and the United Nations could close 130 U.N. bakeries in Kabul, the country's war-ravaged capital. The Taliban are not allowing the U.N.'s World Food Program to employ Afghan women for a key survey.</s>KHALIKD MANSOOR, WORLD FOOD PROGRAM: The bottom line is the Taliban, by preventing us from conducting this survey to determine who in Kabul truly needs food aid, are effectively forcing us to close the general bakeries in Kabul on June 15th on Friday.</s>HUSSAIN: If that happens, nearly 280,000 Afghans will not get subsidized food. This will add to the pain of a population that has suffered two decades of crippling wars.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If the U.N. stops its help, it means that Afghan people will die.</s>HUSSAIN: The Taliban insist that employing women for the survey is against their traditions. They are unwilling to change their position. This has only added to the hopelessness of life in Kabul. Syed Talat Hussein for CNN, Islamabad, Pakistan.
U.N.'s World Food Program May Close Subsidized Bakeries in Afghanistan