Kabul -
Instead of going to her work in the morning as she used to since she joined her job in a foreign institution in the capital, Kabul, Afghan Sherine Mohammadi was busy with housework, with a lot of frustration surrounding her speech after she lost her family's source of income following the Taliban's decision to prevent women from working in foreign and local institutions.
Shirin Mohammadi was able to finish her university studies years ago in her hometown in Kandahar Province, in the south of the country, which qualified her to work in several foreign institutions and move to live in the capital, before settling in a job with a British institution.
The girl assumed the task of supporting her family after her father's retirement, but after the decision of the Afghan government - led by the Taliban movement - to prevent Afghan women from working for foreign and local institutions, she became confined to her home and faced an unknown fate, as she told Al Jazeera Net.
Mohammadi added, "The decision to prevent women from working is shocking and painful, and as an Afghan citizen I feel disappointed. Before the fall of the republic, they used to tell us that the Taliban had changed a lot and were not the same as they were 20 years ago, but I did not notice any difference or development in their way of thinking. Rather, they deal with women." like the previous".
She adds that she works in a non-governmental organization and supports her family, "I do not object to the hijab, and as a Muslim, I must observe it, but the decision is painful because it deprives me of my livelihood."
Afghan Shirin Mohammadi was deprived of her job due to the Taliban's decision to prevent women from working (Al-Jazeera)
Between previous governments and the rule of the Taliban
Since the Taliban came to power for the second time in Afghanistan since the end of August 2021, its leader, Sheikh Hebatullah Akhundzadeh, issued 16 decisions regarding Afghan women, the most important of which was the recent decision to close universities and schools in their faces, and to prevent women from working in foreign and local institutions.
These decisions come after Afghan women were able to advance in the areas of work, study and political participation.
Observers say that all previous governments dealt with women as an essential element in their policies and positions, and over the past 4 decades they recognized their role, giving them a large space in governments and daily life until they reached the ministry, and allocated a share for them in the Senate and Parliament.
As for the governments affiliated with the Taliban, they placed great restrictions on them, and deprived them of their political and basic rights, such as education.
However, a former undersecretary of the Ministry of Women's Affairs told Al-Jazeera Net that "past governments used to deal with women as decoration in the government formation, and we rarely found interest in raising their educational level in the countryside and villages, and attention focused on women in the main cities, and we were unable to spread awareness about the most basic rights of women." .
While the writer and political researcher Tariq Farhadi says that the slogans raised in Afghanistan regarding women, whether with or against women, were not an end in themselves, but rather "a means to achieve political goals or to serve foreign projects."
Farhadi adds to Al-Jazeera Net, "In 1978, the Communists raised the slogan of equality between women and men and prevented polygamy, while the Mujahideen and then the Taliban prevented women from working and closed the doors of schools and universities in front of them. In all of this, women were victims of excess and negligence, and governments were unable to provide solutions consistent with beliefs." the religious and cultural affairs of the Afghan people.
national losses
After the Taliban came to power, it tried to strike a conciliatory tone with women, and pledged to support and respect their rights within Islamic law, but the movement's leadership quickly removed the Ministry of Women's Affairs, the Independent Commission for Human Rights, and women's support institutions that were established in previous governments.
A government source told Al-Jazeera Net that the new decisions regarding Afghan women excluded female students, who made up 45% of the total university students, while local and international institutions lost about 35% of their female members, and this will cause Afghanistan to lose about one billion dollars annually.
According to the same source, "These decisions are individual, and the wise men in the Taliban movement must take the initiative to review these decisions before the matter escalates at the local and international levels."
Some decisions prevented women from praying in mosques, as well as learning in them (Reuters)
16 decisions
During the 17 months of the Taliban’s rule, the leader of the movement, Sheikh Hebatullah Akhundzadeh, issued 16 decisions for Afghan women, some of which were implicitly secret after being circulated orally, such as: preventing women from praying in mosques, and preventing girls from receiving religious education in mosques as well, as for the rest of the decisions Most of them came in official decrees, and they were issued in this chronological order:
The Taliban-led Afghan government issued a statement on protecting the rights of all citizens, especially women, within the framework of Islamic law.
Schools for girls and boys were supposed to open in late September 2021, but the Ministry of Education announced at the time that the schools would open for boys only.
Later, the Ministry of Education decided to allow girls to study from the first to the sixth grade only, and the education of girls in middle and secondary schools continued indefinitely, and millions of them were denied enrollment in their classes.
The Afghan government has announced banning women from working in government offices.
The movement demanded observance of the hijab and refraining from wearing colored clothes. It also demanded broadcasters and media employees to wear masks so that their mouths and part of their faces could not be seen.
Closing all sports clubs to women, and banning the activities of all women's sports teams that participated in international competitions prior to the arrival of the Taliban to power.
Imposing restrictions on the movement of women outside the home.
The Taliban government has ordered all clothing retailers to remove the heads of plastic mannequins.
The leader of the Taliban issued a 6-point decree that includes clarifications about women in Islamic law, according to the movement's understanding. The decree did not mention women's right to education, work and travel.
Experts described this decree as restrictive and inconsistent with the basic freedoms of Afghan women.
The Afghan government decided not to allow women to travel more than 78 kilometers without a mahram, and only in necessary cases.
Stop serials and movies in which women act.
Preventing women from frequenting public parks.
Stop all women's restroom activities in Afghanistan.
Closing public and private universities to women and girls.
Preventing women from working in foreign and local institutions in Afghanistan.
Two-thirds of universities will close
The decision to close universities and prevent women from working in foreign and local institutions led to some professors submitting their resignations in protest against the decision.
There are 126 private and 39 public universities in Afghanistan, and these educational institutions are threatened with closure due to the recent decision against girls' education and women's employment.
According to a government source who spoke to Al-Jazeera Net, more than 300 university professors announced their resignations on social media after the recent decision.
He said, "Local and foreign institutions will lose about 35% of their workforce, which was made up of women, and universities will lose 45% of their students, which is the percentage of females. Next year, 75% of universities will stop working because women are prevented from studying and working."
Observers believe that the recent decisions could lead to an increase in capital flight, a rise in immigration from Afghanistan, and an escalation of social and family conflicts.
The United Nations Mission in Afghanistan called on the new Afghan government to review its decisions regarding women, because this will expose Afghanistan to more international isolation, economic hardship and suffering, affecting millions for years to come.