The only job women can do for the Kabul government is cleaning women’s toilets, acting mayor says

Fear is mounting for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country last month. Despite repeated assurances to respect women’s rights, the Female Government Employees Ordinance is the latest sign that the freedoms of the past 20 years are coming to an end.

Since the takeover, women have been ordered to leave their workplaces in some areas, restrictions on girls’ and women’s education have been introduced, and women have been completely excluded from the new outright government. from the country.

When the Taliban was last in power between 1996 and 2001, the militant group denied women and girls access to education and work, prevented them from leaving home unaccompanied, and forced them to cover their whole body.

“Initially, we allowed them all to be present for their homework on time, but then the Islamic Emirate decided that it was necessary for their work to stop for a while,” Nohmani said, in using the official name of the Taliban. “Then we only allowed the women we needed, I mean for work that men couldn’t do, or that is not a man’s job … For example, there is a toilet. public for women in bazaars. “

He added that their work will now be carried out by men and “until the situation returns to normal, we have asked them to stay at home”.

Her remarks come the same day that women’s rights activists demanded girls’ education and women’s participation in government during Sunday’s protests.

The women marched past a building in Kabul that once housed the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs. This building is now home to the Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, according to a new sign posted outside and seen by a CNN team in the field on Friday.

The Sunday march was organized by the Movement for Change, a civil society women’s movement led by Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan lawmaker, peace negotiator and women’s rights activist.

“The Taliban during and before the negotiations said in their statements that women have the right to work and study in accordance with Islamic law, but today what is happening in Afghanistan is against the promises of the Taliban and against Islamic values, ”Koofi said via a web conference. from outside Afghanistan. “How you forbid a generation to read and write, it is not a social issue that a group of humans are forbidden from study, life and freedom.”

The protest came after the Taliban announced new restrictions on women and girls. A week ago, the Afghan finance ministry, now under Taliban control, issued a notice ordering its employees not to return to work “until a suitable working environment is in place.”

And on Friday, the Education Ministry ordered high school students and teachers to report to their schools on Saturday. The ad did not mention the female students, raising fears that the girls would be excluded from secondary education again.

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said women would be allowed to study. “There are certain rules during their school time that must be followed so that they can be safe and sound,” he said.

Mujahid reiterated previous statements by the Taliban saying, “We are committed to women’s rights” according to the group’s interpretation of the sharia.

However, activist Koofi said the Taliban’s actions so far indicated that they “still do not believe in women’s rights” and pleaded with the international community and the UN to pressure the Taliban to they reverse their intransigent decision.

“Today, we hear that girls do not have the right to go to school, the office doors are closed to them, there is no representative of women in the political leadership” , she said. “They need to know that it is only through respect and participation of women that they can live in peace and in this world.”