Pro-Taliban women rally in Kabul; civil servants in limbo

The Taliban on Saturday repeated a call for civil servants to return to work — but not the thousands of women who served before the Islamist militants’ takeover and have been sent home from their offices and left in limbo.

Also Saturday — the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks — women in full face veils protested in support of the Taliban and its policies of gender segregation, a demonstration that was flanked by Taliban fighters carrying machine guns and rifles. Protests that do not have the Taliban’s approval have been banned.

The scenes stood in stark contrast to the violent suppression of women’s right protests earlier in the week. They also underscore the unraveling of the greater liberties and rights that took root during the two-decade war led by the United States.

The northern Panjshir region, the last holdout province resisting Taliban rule, has been subjected to an increasing campaign of terror and fear, as allegations of rights abuses grow.

One civil servant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity fearing backlash from the Taliban, said she visited her office several days ago but was told to return home by an armed Taliban guard outside her office. She has not heard anything on her salary, either, as officials told her “no decision” has been made as yet. Only women in the health care and education sector have been allowed to return to their jobs since the Taliban took over the government.

Women have been at the forefront of protests in recent days, demonstrating against the Taliban’s decision not to include any women in the caretaker government.

On Saturday, the Taliban permitted a protest by women in support of its policies, who sat in a Kabul university lecture theater in full face veils before taking to the street. The demonstration involved some 300 women, who held printed banners saying they support the Taliban and said were against coeducation.

The United Nations’ human rights office said Friday that it was growing concerned over “an increasingly violent response” by the Taliban to protests, including the use of “live ammunition, batons and whips.”