Women formerly employed by the Kabul city government have been told to stay home by the new acting Taliban officials.
Only women who hold jobs that the Taliban deem cannot be done by men are permitted to continue their jobs.
The new rules barring women from the government mark the latest restrictions imposed by the Taliban.
Kabul’s acting Mayor Hamdullah Nohmani announced the order. The restrictions mean that one of the only jobs women can now do for the government is clean female bathrooms. He said that men would not be able to go into a woman’s bathroom, and therefore, women’s toilets in Afghanistan must be cleaned by women. This was the only job used as an example in the mayor’s announcement.
Hundreds of women are effectively out of work now.
Of the nearly 3,000 employees working for the Kabul government, nearly 30 percent are women, meaning approximately 1,000 women are banned from their jobs.
Nohmani said that men will fill the roles that women previously held in the government.
This latest restriction comes as fear continues to grow for women and girls in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s takeover of the country.
Women’s access to work and education have been blocked or restricted by the Taliban in the weeks since they seized power. Women have been told to leave workplaces, including this new move in the government. For those attending university, women have faced restrictions as well, now being segregated from their male classmates and only being allowed to be taught by female teachers.
In secondary education, female students have not been ordered back to school, establishing fear that girls will be blocked completely.
The Taliban had initially said that women would maintain their right to work and right to education under their new rule, but mounting restrictions and bans have sowed fears this will simply not be true.
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