Female Government Workers In Kabul Told To Stay Home In Latest Taliban Rule

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Women march to demand their rights under the Taliban rule during a demonstration near the former Women’s Affairs Ministry building in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sunday. The interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said that many female city employees have been ordered to stay home by the country’s new Taliban rulers.

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AP

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«There are some areas that men can’t do it, we have to ask our female staff to fulfill their duties, there is no alternative for it,» Namony said, according to the AP.

A Taliban spokesperson last month told women across the country to stay at home for their own safety in what he called a temporary measure. The Taliban haven’t gone into full detail laying out the specific guidance on how long this new rule will be in place and whether or not women will ever be able to return to work.

However, in light of staffing shortages in the health care, the Taliban on Aug. 28 announced they would allow all 2,000 female public health care workers to return to work.

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The former Women’s Affairs Ministry building in Kabul, pictured on Saturday. The Taliban have replaced the office with a ministry for the «propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice.»

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Bernat Armangue/AP

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«We don’t know what’s going to happen next,» said Pashtana Durrani, founder and executive director of LEARN, a nonprofit focused on women’s education in Afghanistan, in an interview on Weekend Edition.

Durrani said that while Taliban rulers haven’t announced a ban, they haven’t addressed the question of where girls in grades 7-12 will go in the meantime if they aren’t receiving their education.

«Where should they go? What should they be doing? … They could’ve been learning,» Durrani said.

Female college students, too, are also facing restrictions from the Taliban, as they were told that their classes would now take place in «gender-segregated settings» in addition to women abiding by a «strict Islamic dress code,» The Associated Press reported.

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Also on Friday, the Taliban closed the Women’s Affairs Ministry and set up a ministry for the «propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice» in its place, resulting in over a dozen women protesting Sunday outside the building.

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Mahbouba Seraj, the head of the Afghan Women’s Network, told The Associated Press she was surprised by the new orders restricting women and girls passed down by the Taliban, saying it’s becoming «really troublesome.»

«Is this the stage where the girls are going to be forgotten?» Seraj said. «I know they don’t believe in giving explanations, but explanations are very important.»

• Afghan Taliban
• Afghan women
• Taliban
• Afghanistan