Taliban asks women city government employees not to return to work
The Taliban in Afghanistan has asked female employees of the city government not to return to work, it was reported.
The female employees asked to stay home didn’t include those from the department of education and health, Neamatullah Barakzai, the Kabul head of public awareness told the Washington Post.
However, the government will continue to pay their salaries till they come up with a work policy for women in the country, Mr Barakzai said.
This new diktat from the Taliban confirms fears that women and their rights under the Taliban regime will be diminished. When the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, they implemented such drastic measures.
Since the Taliban took over Kabul in August, they tried to initially portray a tolerant image and said that women will be given equal rights “under the Sharia law.”
The Taliban acting deputy prime minister Abdul Salam Hanafi, during his visit to Russia on Wednesday, said: “Women will also continue to work at police stations and in passport offices.”
Day 35 of Taliban ban on girls returning to secondary school in Afghanistan. Millions of teenage girls across the country are stuck at home, waiting, hoping, that they can return to their classrooms soon #LetAfghanGirlsLearn
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) October 22, 2021
The spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid also had said in August that “we assure the international community that there will be no discrimination against women, but, of course, within the frameworks we have.”
Afghan women still protesting, demanding their rights. Taliban still attacking protesters, and journalists covering the protest. pic.twitter.com/tTZH4rYAKC
— Heather Barr (@heatherbarr1) October 21, 2021
Many women have been protesting across the country to demand equal rights under the new Taliban regime. When the Taliban formed the interim government in early September, no female members were included in the cabinet.
It happened again, numbers of girls in #Kabul streets called #taliban to open #schools for #girls. Yesterday they asked from a school and today they loudly asked in the streets. #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/QUpNysQs7k
— Zaki Daryabi (@ZDaryabi) October 21, 2021
Since the Taliban came to power, they have also imposed a dress code on women and restricted their movement in public places. To counter this diktat, several Afghan women shared their photos on social media wearing traditional Afghan dresses.
On the support the @UNDP is giving #Afghanistan, @kanniwignaraja tells me the Taliban must "continue to allow women & girls to go to school, women to work, this is essential because women don't hold up half of society & half the local economy, they pretty much hold up all of it". pic.twitter.com/EkxvmAr4uL
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) October 21, 2021
The Taliban have also asked universities to separate men and women in classes. Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the acting minister of higher education told the media that “coeducation is in opposition to Sharia law.”
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