The Taliban government on Saturday ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups in Afghanistan to suspend employing women, allegedly because some female employees didn’t wear the Islamic headscarf appropriately. The ban was the newest restrictive move by Afghanistan’s latest rulers against women’s rights and freedoms.
The order got here in a letter from Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif, which said that any NGO found not complying with the order can have their operating license revoked in Afghanistan. The letter’s content was confirmed to The Associated Press by the ministry’s spokesman, Abdul Rahman Habib.
The ministry said it had received “serious complaints” about female staff working for NGOs not wearing the “correct” headscarf, or hijab. It was not immediately clear if the order applies to all women or only Afghan women working on the NGOs.
More details weren’t immediately available on the newest Taliban ban amid concerns that it could possibly be a stepping-stone to more restrictive measures against women in Afghanistan.
Also Saturday, Taliban security forces used a water cannon to disperse women protesting the ban on university education for ladies within the western city of Herat, eyewitnesses said. The Taliban rulers on Tuesday banned female students from attending universities effective immediately.
Afghan women have since demonstrated in major cities against the ban, a rare sign of domestic protest because the Taliban seized power last yr. The choice has also caused outrage and opposition in Afghanistan and beyond.
In response to eyewitnesses in Herat, about two dozen women were heading to the provincial governor’s house Saturday to protest the ban, chanting: “Education is our right,” once they were pushed back by security forces firing the water cannon.
Video shared with the AP shows the ladies screaming and hiding in a side street to flee the water cannon. They then resume their protest, with chants of “Disgraceful!”
Certainly one of the protest organizers, Maryam, said between 100 and 150 women took part within the protest, moving in small groups from different parts of the town toward a central meeting point. She didn’t give her last name for fear of reprisals.
“There was security on every street, every square, armored vehicles and armed men,” she said. “After we began our protest, in Tariqi Park, the Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us. But we continued our protest. They increased their security presence. Around 11 a.m. they brought out the water cannon.”
A spokesman for the provincial governor, Hamidullah Mutawakil, claimed there have been only 4 to 5 protesters.
“That they had no agenda, they only got here here to make a movie,” he said, without mentioning the violence against the ladies or the usage of the water cannon.
There was widespread international condemnation of the university ban, including from Muslim-majority countries equivalent to Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, in addition to warnings from the US and the G-7 group of major industrial nations that the policy can have consequences for the Taliban.
An official within the Taliban government, Minister of Higher Education Nida Mohammad Nadim, spoke concerning the ban for the primary time on Thursday in an interview with Afghan state television.
He said the ban was needed to stop the blending of genders in universities and since he believes some subjects being taught violated the principles of Islam. He also added the ban can be in place until further notice.
Despite initially promising a more moderate rule respecting rights for ladies and minorities, the Taliban have widely implemented their interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, since they seized power in August 2021.
They’ve banned girls from middle school and highschool — and now universities — and in addition barred women from most fields of employment. Women have also been ordered to wear head-to-toe clothing in public and have been banned from parks and gymnasiums.
The Afghan society, while largely traditional, had increasingly embraced the education of women and girls over the past twenty years of a U.S.-backed government.
Within the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, dozens of Afghan refugee students protested on Saturday against the ban on female higher education of their homeland and demanded the immediate reopening of campuses for ladies.
Certainly one of them, Bibi Haseena, read a poem depicting the grim situation of Afghan girls in search of an education. She said was unhappy about graduating outside her country when a whole lot of 1000’s of her Afghan sisters were being deprived of an education.
