About the only job Afghan women can have in Kabul’s government is cleaning toilets, says acting mayor

(CNN) – Kabul city government employees have been ordered to stay home, and only women whose jobs cannot be performed by men are allowed to go to work, according to the latest restrictions imposed by Taliban in Afghanistan.
The order, announced Sunday by Kabul’s acting mayor Hamdullah Nohmani, effectively means that women are prohibited from working in the government of the Afghan capital. One of the only jobs women can do for the Kabul government is cleaning women’s toilets, according to the ad.

The order leaves hundreds of women unemployed. Nohmani said there are 2,930 people working for the municipality, of which 27% are women.

The fear increases for women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban took control of the country last month. Despite repeated guarantees to respect women’s rights, the government employee order is the latest sign that the freedoms of the past 20 years are coming to an end.

Since the seizure of power, women have been ordered to leave their jobs in some areas, restrictions have been placed on the education of girls and women, and women have been completely excluded of the country’s new hard-line government.

The last time the Taliban were in power, between 1996 and 2001, the militant group prohibited women and girls from education and work, prevented them from leaving home unaccompanied and forced them to cover their entire bodies.

“At first we allowed all of them to be present at their duties, but then the Islamic Emirate decided that it was necessary for them to stop their work for some time,” Nohmani said, using the official name of the Taliban. “So we only allow women to we need, that is, for jobs that men could not do, or that are not men’s work … For example, there are women’s public toilets in bazaars. “

He added that their work will now be done by men, and “until the situation returns to normal, we ask them to stay home.”

Her remarks come on the same day that women’s rights activists demanded in their Sunday protests the education of girls and the participation of women in government.

The women demonstrated outside a building in Kabul that once housed the Afghan Ministry of Women’s Affairs. That building is now the headquarters of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice under the Taliban, according to a new poster posted outside and seen by a CNN team in the city on Friday.

Sunday’s march was organized by the Movement for Change Party, a women’s civil society movement led by Fawzia Koofi, a former Afghan legislator, peace negotiator and women’s rights activist.

“The Taliban, during and before the negotiations, said in their statements that women have the right to work and study according to Islamic law, but today what is happening in Afghanistan goes against the promises made by the Taliban and the Islamic values, “Koofi said by web conference from outside Afghanistan. “How a generation is being forbidden to read and write, it is not a social issue that a group of humans is forbidden to study, to live and to freedom.”

The protest came after the Taliban announced new restrictions on women and girls. A week ago, Afghanistan’s Finance Ministry, now under Taliban control, issued a notice ordering its female employees not to return to work “until a suitable work environment is arranged.”

And on Friday, the Ministry of Education ordered male high school students and teachers to report to their schools on Saturday. The ad did not mention female students, which raised fears that girls would again be excluded from secondary education.

However, the Taliban they denied the claims that Afghan women were to be excluded from secondary schools, stating that they needed to establish a “safe transportation system” for female students before allowing them to return to classrooms.

Speaking to CNN on Saturday, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said that women will be able to study. “There are certain rules during their class time that must be obeyed so that they can be safe and sound,” he said.

Mujahid reiterated earlier statements by the Taliban: “We are committed to women’s rights,” according to the group’s interpretation of sharia.

However, activist Koofi said that the Taliban’s actions so far indicate that they “still do not believe in women’s rights” and called on the international community and the UN to pressure the Taliban to reverse their decision. hard line.

“Today we hear that girls are not allowed to receive an education, that office doors are closed in their faces, that there is no female representative in the political leadership,” she said. “They should know that only with the respect and participation of women can one live in peace in this world.”

– Kareem Khadder wrote from Jerusalem and Ingrid Formanek from Kabul. With additional reporting by CNN’s Nic Robertson, Taylor Barnes and Ivana Kottasová.