Afghan women outraged by new Taliban restrictions on work

During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative

About a dozen Afghan women protested briefly Sunday outside the old Ministry for Women's Affairs, which has now been replaced by a department that earned notoriety for enforcing strict islamic doctrine

Fears were mounting in Afghanistan on Monday 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 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.

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. 

The all-male government on Friday also appeared to shut down the former administration's ministry of women's affairs and replaced it with one that earned notoriety during their first stint in power for enforcing religious doctrine.

On Monday, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus landed in Kabul ahead of talks with the Taliban leadership, as the country's already impoverished health system struggles to function following the suspension of aid.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for a series of weekend blasts in Jalalabad, capital of Nangarhar and the heartland of their Afghanistan chapter.

Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities. 

But since returning to power on August 15, the Taliban have shown no inclination to honour those rights.

"When will that be?" a woman teacher said Monday.

Women in the capital remain deeply suspicious.

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.

During the Taliban's first rule from 1996 to 2001, women were largely excluded from public life including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.

Vice ministry enforcers were notorious for punishing anyone deemed not to be following the Taliban's strict interpretation of Islam.

"They told us that women should not work as shopkeepers or run businesses," the 34-year-old told AFP.

Women have been at the forefront of a number of small, isolated protests, but the Taliban stamped down on dissent, dispersing crowds with gun fire and issuing new rules for demonstrations.

In Herat, an education official insisted the issue of girls and women teachers returning to secondary school was a question of time, not policy.

Ten-year-old Marwa on Monday attended her classes at school, but her sister, six years older, was forced to stay home.  

The United Nations said it was "deeply worried" for the future of girls' schooling in Afghanistan. 

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