On Tuesday, the Taliban denied UN accusations that women’s rights in Afghanistan had “declined” since they came to power and said “thousands” of Afghan women were working in government jobs, but some were “at home”.
They said female employees working in various ministries and public services were not allowed to come to offices to avoid mixing with men, but “continue to receive their salaries” at home.
Since their return to power in August 2021, the Taliban have banished girls and women from public life by imposing severe restrictions on their adherence to their strict vision of Islam.
Radicals banned girls’ high schools in most provinces and barred women from many government jobs. They also ordered women to cover themselves completely in public, ideally with a burqa, that is, a full veil.
On Monday, a UN special rapporteur denounced the “major setback for women and girls’ rights” since the Taliban took power.
The United Nations mission in Afghanistan also accused the Taliban of intimidating and harassing their employees. Three of them were temporarily detained and questioned.
Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement that the UN report was “biased and far from reflecting the truth”.
“Thousands of women work in education, higher education, health (…). In Afghanistan, women’s lives are no longer threatened and no one disrespects them,” she said.
Sharafuddin Sharaf, Chief of Staff, Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, told AFP that “not a single employee” has been laid off since the Taliban came to power.
However, he said that employees of various ministries and departments, for which measures to separate men and women have not yet been implemented, cannot go to their offices.
It is not possible in our Islamic system for men and women to work together in an office.
He added that “when they are not needed”, their male colleagues have “a responsibility to do their job”.
One woman told AFP she was denied entry into her old office and had to sign a registration in a parking lot once a week, for which she was paid 10,000 Afghans (about €110), less than a third of her old salary.
“Often they humiliate and humiliate us,” said Nasria Tamkeen. “We can’t call it a salary because it can’t meet a family’s needs,” she complained.
“Women work where needed” in most ministries, Sharaf said, without disclosing the total number of female civil servants.
source: Noticias
