Afghan women outraged by Taliban restrictions on work
Fears were mounting in Afghanistan yesterday as the Taliban tightened their grip on women's rights, slashing access to work and denying girls the right to secondary school education.
After pledging a softer version of their brutal and repressive regime of the 1990s, the Islamic fundamentalists have been stripping away at freedoms one month after seizing power.
"I may as well be dead," said one woman, who was sacked from her senior role at the foreign ministry.
"I was in charge of a whole department and there were many women working with me... now we have all lost our jobs," she told AFP, insisting she not be identified for fear of reprisals.
The acting mayor of the capital Kabul has said any municipal jobs currently held by women would be filled by men.
While the country's new rulers have not issued a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace.
Many Afghan women fear they will never find meaningful employment. Since returning to power on August 15, the Taliban have shown no inclination to honour rights of women.
When pressed, Taliban officials say women have been told to stay at home for their own security but will be allowed to work once proper segregation can be implemented.
"When will that be?" a woman teacher said yesterday. "This happened last time. They kept saying they would allow us to return to work, but it never happened."
Women in the capital remain deeply suspicious.
"The Taliban told us not to come to work and to wait for their second announcement. But it seems like they don't want women to work again," a lawyer in the capital's high court told AFP.
A colleague fears that because of her past role prosecuting Taliban fighters, she will not be allowed to work again, but has noticed some changes in the regime.
"They are not like before but we don't know if it will last. Before we had to be accompanied by a man, today we can come alone," she added.
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