By Amin Kawa
August 19, 2024
Credits @FFHR.CZ
Over the past three years, the Taliban have imposed severe restrictions on women in Afghanistan, barring them from working in government institutions and international organizations within the country. This group has also sidelined female university professors, leaving only teachers of lower primary grades and health workers as exceptions, while all other women remain confined to their homes. In an unprecedented move, the Taliban have also prohibited women from working in international organizations, including the United Nations, sparking widespread reactions. Furthermore, the Taliban have recently set a monthly fixed salary of 5,000 Afghanis for all female employees who have been ordered to stay home by the group’s supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhundzada.
In the past 20 years, Afghan women and girls made significant strides in showcasing their participation and presence in power and politics across various sectors. Before the Taliban’s takeover, women comprised 29.39% of the 400,000 civil service employees in the country. Female representatives held 27% of the seats in the House of Representatives and 22% in the Senate. Similarly, women played key roles in the executive branch, independent commissions, and the judiciary, with their presence in public sectors, including the military, at 10%.
With the Taliban’s return to power, women’s rights to education, employment, and all freedoms have been stripped away, leaving them deprived of their most basic rights. The Taliban have imposed numerous restrictions on women and girls over the past three years, leading to increased marginalization, poverty, and widening social and economic gaps between men and women.
Unemployment among women has driven some to extreme measures, including selling their children. For instance, after the Taliban’s work restrictions were enforced, a woman in Ghor Province sold her two granddaughters for $1,100 and $1,500 due to poverty.
According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, women should not be subjected to torture or cruel punishment, coerced into accepting jobs or deprived of their preferred employment.
Exclusion of Women from Government Jobs
After the Taliban took control of Kabul, they instructed that female employees in government offices should stay home but continue to receive their salaries. Initially, women were allowed to visit their workplaces once a week to sign in and then return home, but this privilege was soon revoked. The Kabul Municipality, also under Taliban control, announced that only women whose roles could not be replaced by men could return to work.
Introduction of Male Family Members as Replacements
On September 11, 2022, the Taliban’s Ministry of Finance instructed female employees to introduce male family members as replacements. However, many women, being the sole breadwinners for their families, reported having no male relatives available, with some having lost their male family members in Taliban conflicts or suicide attacks.
Ban on Women Working in Private Organizations
On December 24, 2022, the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy issued a directive to domestic and international organizations to suspend female employees’ work “until further notice.” The memo, signed by Din Mohammad Hanif, the acting head of the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy, warned that violating this directive would result in the revocation of the organizations’ licenses and penalties. The Taliban claimed this ban was due to non-compliance with “Islamic hijab” and “other laws and regulations.”
Ban on Afghan Women from Working in UN Offices
On Wednesday, April 3, 2024, the United Nations announced that the Taliban had informed them that no Afghan woman would be permitted to work in UN offices in the country. The organization instructed all female and male employees to refrain from attending work until further notice.
Restrictions on Women Working in Health Institutions
The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice sent a letter to the Ministry of Public Health imposing strict restrictions on both male and female health workers. According to the letter, female health workers must adhere to the group’s prescribed hijab and work in separate offices from men. Male employees were also instructed to groom themselves according to traditional Islamic standards and deny entry to women not complying with the Taliban’s dress code in public health facilities and other institutions. The Ministry continuously monitors the implementation of this directive by overseeing the Taliban-controlled Ministry of Public Health and other government institutions.
Ban on Women Working in the Judicial System
The Taliban have not issued a formal decree banning women from working in the judiciary but have deemed their presence in this sector contrary to Sharia law. Enayatullah, the deputy spokesperson for the Taliban Supreme Court, claimed that female judges lack sufficient knowledge of Sharia law and that Sharia does not permit women to judge in cases of retribution and limits.
The Taliban spokesperson claimed, “Sharia law does not permit women to preside over cases related to retribution and punishments. Secondly, the Taliban have not decided on the role of female judges. Therefore, the work of female judges is currently suspended.”
The Taliban’s All-Male Cabinet and Elimination of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs
On August 17, 2021, just two days after the fall of the Republic, Taliban spokesperson Zabiullah Mujahid declared the importance of women’s participation in society during his first press conference. He stated, “Women should work in all sectors within the framework of Islam, with no discrimination between men and women.” However, the group has not adhered to this statement and has banned women from all spheres by abolishing the Ministry of Women’s Affairs from the government structure.
After the removal of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, its sign was replaced on September 17, 2021, with the sign for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, provoking widespread protests from women and girls, which were met with violence and dispersal by the Taliban.
Closure of Women’s Beauty Salons
In continuation of its restrictions, the Taliban have closed all women’s beauty salons. Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Taliban’s hidden supreme leader, has decreed that all salon activities be banned and their licenses revoked. A letter from the Taliban, based on the supreme leader’s directive, stated that from March 23, 2024, to April 23, 2024, salons must cease operations, with licenses and contracts expiring post the given date. The closure has left over 60,000 women employed in this field jobless.
Reactions to the Ban on Women’s Employment
The ban on women’s work, especially in international organizations and foreign organizations, has elicited widespread international reactions. The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) strongly condemned the Taliban’s decision to ban women of Afghanistan from working in the UN, stating that no other regime in UN history has attempted to prohibit women from working there solely because of their gender. UNAMA described this decision as an assault on women, UN principles, and international law.
In a statement, UNAMA reported that female local staff in the organization had been detained and harassed before the issuance of the work ban. The statement further noted, “In the history of the United Nations, no other regime has ever attempted to bar women from working in the UN solely because of their gender… This decision amounts to an assault on women, the fundamental principles of the United Nations, and international law.”
Médecins Sans Frontières also responded by noting that 51% of its health staff in Afghanistan are women, making their continued operation and service provision impossible without them.
Similarly, the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) suspended its activities in Afghanistan due to the ban on women’s employment, stating that it would remain suspended until women were allowed to work. However, the organization later resumed its operations in the country.
Various countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, and several regional nations, have reacted to the Taliban’s ban on women’s employment, condemning it as contrary to human rights values and persistently calling for the lifting of these bans in multiple international forums.
Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Afghanistan, reported that the Taliban have issued over 50 restrictive decrees against women and girls, implementing widespread and systematic discrimination. These decrees restrict women’s rights to freedom of movement, attire, behavior, and access to education, employment, health, and justice.
Following these bans, thousands of women have lost their jobs. Many of them, who are the sole providers for their families, are enduring severe economic hardship and have been forced to sell their homes and properties to survive.
Recently, the Human Rights section of UNAMA published a 30-page report titled “De Facto Authorities’ Moral Oversight in Afghanistan: Impacts on Human Rights” The report reveals that Taliban authorities have violated the privacy of both women and men, conducting 1,033 instances of arbitrary punishment, with 205 cases of mistreatment of women and 828 cases involving men.
Source: 8am.media
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