The Taliban’s ban on women working leads to strong anger among Afghan women. They lose their rights.
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A woman tells the news agency AFP that both she and all the women with high positions in the foreign ministry in the country have lost their jobs.
– I might as well be dead, says the woman, who wishes to remain anonymous.
Afghan women have been fighting for their rights for the past 20 years. They have become lawyers, judges, pilots and police officers in the largest cities in the country.
Hundreds of thousands have joined the workforce – a necessity in some cases as many women have become widows or now support a disabled husband as a result of two decades of conflict.
Now all the work is about to be reversed.
It is only a month since the Taliban seized power in the country. They promised to give women rights in accordance with the rules of Islam. Now the group is tightening on these rights.
Women are not allowed to go to work, and girls are not allowed to take higher education. This also happened the last time the Taliban ruled, in the 1990s.
– Disturbing
The mayor of Kabul, Hamdullah Namony, told the press on Sunday that only women who cannot be immediately replaced by men are allowed to work.
Another sign that women’s rights are threatened is that the Ministry of Women’s Affairs was wound up. Instead, a ministry has been established for the promotion of virtue and the prevention of immorality.
Mabouba Suraj, head of Afghanistan’s women’s network, says she is amazed at the many restrictions that have been introduced on women and girls recently.
– It’s starting to get really, really disturbing. Is this the point where girls should be forgotten? asks Suraj in an interview with the news agency AP.
– Question about time
Shahabudin Saqib, who is in charge of education at Herat, says the issue of girls and female teachers returning to school is a matter of time, not politics.
– It is not clear when it will happen: tomorrow, next week or next month. We do not know, he says.
A female teacher says the Taliban gave the same message to wait the last time they were in power.
“The Taliban kept saying that we should be allowed to return to work, but that never happened,” she said.
UNESCO chief Audrey Azoulay says she is concerned about reports that the Taliban will not let the girls return to school.
– If this ban is upheld, it is a major violation of the basic right to education girls and women have, she said before a meeting at the UN on Saturday.
Aftenposten has recently had a team in Afghanistan. Here you can read their reports:
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