The new Taliban mayor of Kabul has told women working for the government to stay home.
Female municipal employees will be replaced by men in every position, unless the Taliban deems that a man cannot do that role.
Acting mayor Hamdullah Nomany said the Taliban finds it necessary “to stop women working for a while.”
An estimated one third of the 3,000 government employees are women, leaving close to 1,000 women out of work.
This marks the latest restriction against women and girls in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
Last month, women were instructed to stay home “for their own safety.”
Female judges across the country were let go from their positions, leading the women to fear for theirs and their families’ lives and to go into hiding.
Female students have been separated from their male classmates at university, and can now only be taught by female teachers. A new strict dress code is also being enforced.
Fear is growing that girls will be blocked from secondary education altogether, as middle and high school-aged boys were told to return to school, but girls were not mentioned at all.
When the Taliban previously ruled Afghanistan in the 1990s, women and girls were completely banned from education and the workplace.
After the Islamist group’s takeover a month ago, Taliban officials said that women’s rights would be respected “within the framework of Islamic law,” leaving some to hope that the same mass restrictions as the ‘90s wouldn’t take place. But as more rules against women pile up, women fear their rights to work and education are at an end.
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