On Saturday, the Taliban government in Afghanistan told all foreign and Afghan non-governmental groups to stop hiring women. This is the latest move by the country’s new leaders to limit the rights and freedoms of women.
Economy Minister Qari Din Mohammed Hanif issued the directive in a letter, stating that non-compliant NGOs would have their operation licenses withdrawn in Afghanistan. The wording of the letter was verified by the ministry’s spokesperson, Abdul Rahman Habib, to The Associated Press.
According to the ministry, it had received “serious complaints” about female NGO employees not wearing the “correct” headscarf. It wasn’t clear right away if the order was for all women or just for Afghan women who worked at NGOs.
Further information on the current Taliban restriction was not immediately available, raising worries that it might be a precursor to more stringent measures against women in Afghanistan.
According to eyewitnesses, Taliban security personnel used a water cannon to disperse women protesting the restriction on women’s university education in the western city of Herat on Saturday. Tuesday marked the Taliban’s official prohibition on female students attending universities.
Afghan women have already marched against the ban in major cities, a rare display of domestic opposition since the Taliban took control last year. The decision has outraged Afghans and others.
Eyewitnesses in Herat said that security officers used a water cannon to disperse a group of about two dozen women who were marching toward the home of the province governor to protest the ban and screaming, “Education is our right.”
AP footage shows the women crying and hiding in a side street from the water cannon. They then continue their demonstration, with chants of “Disgraceful!”
Maryam, one of the protest’s organizers, estimates that 100–150 women participated, gathering in smaller groups around the city and making their way to a central meeting location. In order to protect herself, she did not reveal her last name.
“There was security on every street, every square, armored vehicles and armed men,” she explained. “When we started 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 spokesperson for the governor of the province, Hamidullah Mutawakil, said that there were just four or five people participating in the demonstration.
Without addressing the violence against the women or the deployment of the water cannon, he said, “they had no agenda, they just came here to make a film.”
The university restriction has received considerable worldwide outcry, especially from nations with a majority of Muslims like Saudi Arabia.
The United States, along with the Group of Seven major industrial countries, have warned about the potential consequences of this policy on the Taliban. Additionally, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar have also expressed similar concerns.
On Thursday, Minister of Higher Education Nida Mohammad Nadim of the Taliban administration was the first official to discuss the ban when he gave an interview with Afghan state television.
He said that the ban was needed to stop the mixing of men and women in universities and because he thinks that some of the subjects being taught go against Islam. The prohibition will remain in effect until further notice, he said.
Since taking control in August 2021, the Taliban have extensively imposed their vision of Islamic law, or Sharia, despite originally pledging a more moderate government that would protect the rights of women and minorities.
They have prohibited females from attending colleges as well as middle and high schools, as well as the majority of occupations. In addition, women have been told to cover up from head to toe in public and prohibited from using parks and gyms.
While Afghan culture is deeply rooted in tradition, the last two decades under a government-backed by the United States have seen a marked increase in support for the education of girls and women.
Saturday, dozens of Afghan refugee students in the city of Quetta in southwestern Pakistan protested against the ban on higher education for women in their home country and demanded that campuses for women be opened right away.
Bibi Haseena, one of them, delivered a poem on the difficulty of getting an education for women in Afghanistan. She expressed regret that she had to get her degree abroad when hundreds of thousands of her Afghan sisters were being denied access to school.
Image Credit: Stringer/Getty Images
