Taliban Takeover: Afghan Women Barred from Doing Jobs that Men Can Do

• Afghan women who have been working in the Kabul city government will no longer continue working until advised so
• The announcement comes a month after the Taliban ascended to power in Afghanistan
• A week ago, the same government stopped middle and high school students who are female from going to school

A few weeks after the Taliban ascended to power in Afghanistan, female employees in the Kabul city government have been barred from working until further notice.

The announcement was made by the interim mayor of Kabul Hamdullah Namony, outlining that only the women in positions which cannot be replaced with men are exempted.

“There are some areas that men can’t do it, we have to ask our female staff to fulfil their duties, there is no alternative for it,” he announced.

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Such include areas of design and engineering, as well as attendants of public toilets for women.

Harsh Islam rule

The Guardian reports that asking women to keep off white-collar jobs is a sign that the Taliban are hellbent on enforcing their relentless interpretation of Islam.

The new rule goes against one of the group's initial promises that their leadership would practise inclusivity.

As a matter of fact, there have been several decrees that infringe on the freedoms that Afghan women had enjoyed in the recent past, most notably ordering female middle and high school students to remain at home.

Furthermore, female university students could only continue learning in gender-segregated settings with strict adherence to a strict Islamic dress code.

The announcement takes the country back to the Taliban's previous regime in the 1990s where women were not allowed to work, get educated, or enjoy public life.

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Women's affairs ministry expunged

On Friday, September 17, the Taliban replaced the women’s affairs ministry with a new one called the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice.”

It was a new development that saw over a dozen of Afghan women stage a protest outside the ministry as they reiterated their importance in the participation of public life.

“A society in which women are not active is a dead society,” read one of the signs.

The protest took about 10 minutes after which the women entered their vehicles and left.

According to mayor Namony, less than 30% of the city's 3,000 employees were female, and that they were absorbed in different departments.

The announcement comes at a time the Taliban regime has been trying to win public trust by presenting themselves as guarantors of security in a country where crime had reached extremely high levels.

Taliban takeover

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Taliban militants took over the reins of power in Afghanistan on Sunday, August 15, plunging the country into political unrest.

It was a period that saw the US move with speed to evacuate its nationals as well as Afghan nationals who were fleeing the country.

US President set the deadline for withdrawing from the country as of August 31, 2021, concluding Operation Freedom's Sentinel and NATO's Resolute Support Mission.

Government turns down request for Afghans to seek refuge in SA amid Taliban takeover

Previously, Briefly News reported that amid the Taliban's cataclysmic return to power in Afghanistan, the South African government says it does not have the capacity to accommodate refugees who fled the country to Pakistan.

An already overwhelmed social welfare system presents a challenge for South Africa and would not enable the intake of more refugees, according to a TimesLIVE report.

On Wednesday, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) said it noted the move toward negotiations for South Africa to consider receiving Afghan refugees who had sought refuge in Pakistan.

Source: Briefly News