The interim mayor of the Afghan capital, Kabul, said city administration and public servants had been ordered to stay at home, the Associated Press reported.
Hamdullah Nomani said that only women who are in positions where they cannot be replaced by men are allowed to work. This includes both qualified employees in the engineering departments of the municipality and employees in the public women’s toilets.
Nomani’s announcement is another indication that the Taliban are preparing to limit the role of women in public life, despite initial promises of tolerance and inclusion. Under the previous rule, the Taliban had banned girls and women from going to school and working.
The mayor of Kabul said today that a final decision on the fate of the employees in the municipal services of Kabul has yet to be made and until then the women will receive their salaries. Nomani recalled that before the Taliban took control of Afghanistan last month, less than a third of Kabul’s nearly 3,000 city officials were women.
–
