Taliban already backtracking on women’s rights

MUMBAI: As the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, there are signs the insurgents are going back on a promise allowing women to work, according to interviews with female bank employees forced out of their jobs.

The Taliban, who imposed strict Islamic law and barred women from work when it ruled Afghanistan between 1996-2001, have repeatedly said the rights of women will be protected should it return to power. But there are signs that they are going back on such promises.

Early last month in the southern city of Kandahar, armed Taliban fighters walked into the offices of Afghanistan’s Azizi Bank.

They escorted the nine women working there to their homes and ordered them not to return, instead allowing a male relative to take their place, according to three of the women and a bank manager.

Two days later in the western city of Herat, a similar scene played out in the branch of another Afghan lender, Bank Milli, two female cashiers that witnessed the incident said.

Three Taliban fighters carrying guns entered the branch, admonishing female employees for showing their faces in public. Women there also quit, sending male relatives in their place.

Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the group had not taken a decision on whether to allow female bank employees in the areas which it controls.

“After the establishment of the Islamic system, it will be decided according to the law, and God willing, there will be no problems,” he said.

As Taliban fighters wrested control over Kandahar in recent weeks, they have also started to push women out of professional jobs, which they say are unfit for women to pursue if they require them to work in the presence of men and expose their faces.