KABUL — After seizing control of
Afghanistan in August 2021 the Taliban promised a softer version of the harsh rule that
characterized their first stint in power, when women were stripped of most of
their rights.
اضافة اعلان
This time around the movement has largely refrained
from issuing rigid national edicts, but authorities at a provincial level have
introduced rules and guidelines dictating how women should live.
Here are some areas of women’s lives impacted by the
Taliban’s return:
Employment
The
Taliban say they allow
women to work as long as they are segregated from men.
In practice,
however, women are effectively barred from employment — particularly for the
government — apart from in specialized sectors such as health care and
education.
Even women working in the private sector complain of
being harassed going to and from their offices, while Taliban intelligence
operatives frequently visit commercial enterprises to make sure strict
segregation is enforced.
Many bosses have also fired women staff out of
caution.
In some places,
however, small women-only cooperatives have been able to continue — such as a
jasmine processing facility in the ancient western city of Herat, long
considered liberal by
Afghan standards.
Still, tens of thousands of Afghan women have been
made jobless by the Taliban’s return, overturning two decades of progress in
diversifying all aspects of their employment — from the police to courts.
Education
The Taliban say all girls
are entitled to an education, but the majority of secondary schools at least —
for those aged from 13 to 18 — have not reopened since August.
Officials now say education for all will resume by
the end of March, but an exodus of teachers and a ban on men leading classes
for girls means it will be difficult for them to meet that target.
Most private universities have resumed, also while
suffering a teacher shortage. But classes must be segregated by sex and there
can be no mingling of men and women between lessons.
Some government universities resumed under similar
constraints two weeks ago, but there was only a trickle of attendance by women
at most facilities.
Personal freedoms
During their first stint in
power, the Taliban made it compulsory for women to wear an all-covering burqa
in public, and agents of the feared Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and
Prevention of Vice would lash anyone caught without.
The ministry put up posters across
Kabul last month
“suggesting” women should at least wear the less restrictive hijab — but the
message was accompanied by pictures of the burqa.
An order was also issued saying women could not
travel between cities and towns unless accompanied by a male relative, and taxi
drivers were told not to pick up female passengers unless they wore head
coverings.
Beauty parlors and fashion boutiques in the capital
were booming before the Taliban’s return, but they have largely disappeared.
Meanwhile shop mannequins have been beheaded in
Herat and billboards featuring the human form taken down because they are
deemed un-Islamic.
Sport and culture
Television channels have been ordered to stop showing dramas and soap
operas featuring women actors, while female journalists must wear a
hijab in
front of cameras.
A senior Taliban official has said it is
“unnecessary” for women to play sport, but they have been wary of formalizing
that philosophy because funding from the organizations that govern world sport
— including football and cricket — depends on allowing all sexes to play.
Many of the country’s leading singers,
musicians, artists,
and photographers have fled since the Taliban’s return, while those who
couldn’t escape have gone into hiding or are keeping a very low profile.
Read more Region and World
.jpg)
.jpg)
