Taliban tell female staff in Kabul not to come to work

FEMALE employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay at home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said yesterday.

The decision to prevent most female city workers returning to their jobs is another sign that the Taliban, who overran Kabul last month, are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises that they would be tolerant and inclusive. During their previous period of rule, in the 1990s, the Taliban barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.

In recent days, the new Taliban government has issued several decrees rolling back the rights of girls and women. It told female middle and high school students that they could not return to class for the time being, while male peers resumed studies this weekend.

Female university students were informed that studies would take place in gender-segregated settings from now on, and that they must abide by a strict Islamic dress code. Under the Usbacked government deposed by the Taliban, university studies had been mixed, for the most part.

On Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

Yesterday, a dozen women staged a 10-minute protest outside, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. “A society in which women are not active is [sic] dead society,” one read. After a confrontation with a man, the women left, as Taliban members observed from nearby. In past months, Taliban fighters have broken up several women’s protests by force.