Exclusive-Afghan women should not work alongside men, senior Taliban figure says
By Alasdair Pal 4 hrs ago
© Reuters/STRINGER FILE PHOTO:
Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior Taliban commander, speaks with Reuters during an interview at an undisclosed location near Afghanistan-Pakistan border
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Afghan women should not be allowed to work alongside men, a senior figure in the ruling Taliban said, a position which, if formally implemented, would effectively bar them from employment in government offices, banks, media companies and beyond.
Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior figure in the Taliban who is close to the leadership, told Reuters the group would fully implement its version of sharia, or Islamic law, despite pressure from the international community to allow women the right to work where they want.
Since the movement swept to power last month, Taliban officials have said women would be able to work and study within the limits laid down by sharia.
But there has been widespread uncertainty about what practical effect that will have on their ability to keep their jobs. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, women were barred from employment and education.
The issue is of major importance to the international community and could impact the amount of aid https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/un-seeks-600-million-avert-afghanistan-humanitarian-crisis-2021-09-12 and other assistance that is given to Afghanistan, which is in the throes of economic crisis.
"We have fought for almost 40 years to bring (the) sharia law system to Afghanistan," Hashimi said in an interview. "Sharia ... does not allow men and women to get together or sit together under one roof.
"Men and women cannot work together. That is clear. They are not allowed to come to our offices and work in our ministries."
It was unclear to what extent Hashimi's comments reflected the new government's policies, although they appeared to go further than public comments made by some other officials.
Video: Female Afghan news anchor says Taliban prevent her from working (NBC News)
In the days following the Taliban's conquest of Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters that women were an important part of the community and they would work "in different sectors".
He also specifically included women employees in a call for government bureaucrats to return to their jobs.
ALL-MEN CABINET
However, the cabinet appointments announced on Sept. 7 did not include any women and there have been widespread reports of women being sent back home from their workplaces.
Hashimi said the ban on women would also apply to sectors like media https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/actions-or-words-afghan-journalists-question-talibans-free-press-pledge-2021-08-19 and banking https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-women-bankers-forced-roles-taliban-takes-control-2021-08-13, where women have become increasingly prominent since the Taliban fell in 2001 and a Western-backed government was installed.
Contact between men and women outside the home will be allowed in certain circumstances, for example when seeing a male doctor, he added.
Women should also be allowed to study https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/taliban-say-woman-can-study-university-classes-must-be-segregated-2021-09-12 and work in the education and medical sectors, where separate facilities can be set up for their exclusive use.
"We will of course need women, for example in medicine, in education. We will have separate institutions for them, separate hospitals, separate universities maybe, separate schools, separate madrassas."
On Sunday, the Taliban's new education minister said women could study at university, but must be segregated https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/taliban-say-woman-can-study-university-classes-must-be-segregated-2021-09-12 from men.
Women have staged several protests https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-protests-persist-posing-problem-new-taliban-government-2021-09-07 across Afghanistan, demanding that the rights they won over the last two decades be preserved. Some rallies have been broken up by Taliban gunmen firing shots into the air.
Improved women's rights - more noticeable in urban centres than deeply conservative rural areas - were repeatedly cited by the United States as one of the biggest successes of its 20-year operation in the country that officially ended on Aug. 31.
The female labour participation rate stood at 23% in 2020, according to the World Bank, up from effectively zero when the Taliban last ruled.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Afghan women should not be allowed to work alongside men, a senior figure in the ruling Taliban said, a position which, if formally implemented, would effectively bar them from employment in government offices, banks, media companies and beyond.
Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior figure in the Taliban who is close to the leadership, told Reuters the group would fully implement its version of sharia, or Islamic law, despite pressure from the international community to allow women the right to work where they want.
Since the movement swept to power last month, Taliban officials have said women would be able to work and study within the limits laid down by sharia.
But there has been widespread uncertainty about what practical effect that will have on their ability to keep their jobs. When the Taliban last ruled Afghanistan from 1996-2001, women were barred from employment and education.
The issue is of major importance to the international community and could impact the amount of aid https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/un-seeks-600-million-avert-afghanistan-humanitarian-crisis-2021-09-12 and other assistance that is given to Afghanistan, which is in the throes of economic crisis.
"We have fought for almost 40 years to bring (the) sharia law system to Afghanistan," Hashimi said in an interview. "Sharia ... does not allow men and women to get together or sit together under one roof.
"Men and women cannot work together. That is clear. They are not allowed to come to our offices and work in our ministries."
It was unclear to what extent Hashimi's comments reflected the new government's policies, although they appeared to go further than public comments made by some other officials.
Video: Female Afghan news anchor says Taliban prevent her from working (NBC News)
In the days following the Taliban's conquest of Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters that women were an important part of the community and they would work "in different sectors".
He also specifically included women employees in a call for government bureaucrats to return to their jobs.
ALL-MEN CABINET
However, the cabinet appointments announced on Sept. 7 did not include any women and there have been widespread reports of women being sent back home from their workplaces.
Hashimi said the ban on women would also apply to sectors like media https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/actions-or-words-afghan-journalists-question-talibans-free-press-pledge-2021-08-19 and banking https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-women-bankers-forced-roles-taliban-takes-control-2021-08-13, where women have become increasingly prominent since the Taliban fell in 2001 and a Western-backed government was installed.
Contact between men and women outside the home will be allowed in certain circumstances, for example when seeing a male doctor, he added.
Women should also be allowed to study https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/taliban-say-woman-can-study-university-classes-must-be-segregated-2021-09-12 and work in the education and medical sectors, where separate facilities can be set up for their exclusive use.
"We will of course need women, for example in medicine, in education. We will have separate institutions for them, separate hospitals, separate universities maybe, separate schools, separate madrassas."
On Sunday, the Taliban's new education minister said women could study at university, but must be segregated https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/taliban-say-woman-can-study-university-classes-must-be-segregated-2021-09-12 from men.
Women have staged several protests https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/afghan-protests-persist-posing-problem-new-taliban-government-2021-09-07 across Afghanistan, demanding that the rights they won over the last two decades be preserved. Some rallies have been broken up by Taliban gunmen firing shots into the air.
Improved women's rights - more noticeable in urban centres than deeply conservative rural areas - were repeatedly cited by the United States as one of the biggest successes of its 20-year operation in the country that officially ended on Aug. 31.
The female labour participation rate stood at 23% in 2020, according to the World Bank, up from effectively zero when the Taliban last ruled.
(Reporting by Alasdair Pal; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
HOW LONG WILL THIS LAST
Kabul airport: Women head back to work as civilian flights resume
An international commercial flight left Kabul on Monday, the first since the Taliban retook power last month, offering some hope to Afghans still desperate to leave the country.
How Afghan women are resisting Taliban rule
Since the Taliban took over power, their decrees and crackdowns have shown how the Islamic fundamentalist regime wants to repress the rights of women and girls.
Women's rights activists have been at the forefront of anti-Taliban protests since the group seized power last month
"For security reasons, demonstrations are banned in Afghanistan from now on," reads the first official decree issued by the Afghan Interior Ministry under the Taliban regime.
The statement added that people must secure official permission before any protests, and security agencies must be informed of all details such as the kind of slogans that will be used during the demonstrations.
The ministry, which is now led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, warned that protesters will face "severe legal consequences" in case of violations of the new rules.
The ban seems to be mainly targeted at female activists, who have been at the forefront of anti-Taliban protests since the Islamic fundamentalist group seized power in the country last month.
"We will continue to demonstrate for our rights, even without official permission," Mahbobe Nasrin Dockt, a Kabul-based women's rights activist told DW. "The Taliban-led Interior Ministry has not even started its work properly. Who should we seek permission from? It's also obvious that they won't give us permission once they know why we want to gather."
Nasrin Dockt has been organizing demonstrations in the Afghan capital Kabul against the nation's new rulers since early September. At a recent protest, she was arrested by the Taliban. "They entered my data into a system and warned me not to organize any more demonstrations. But I will not be intimidated. If we don't fight, we've lost."
Tough path ahead for Afghan women
Since the Taliban takeover, Afghan women have been afraid of reprisals and new restrictions of their rights by the Islamists. When the radical group was last in power, between 1996 and 2001, it banished women from education and public life.
Now, after seizing power again, the group pledged to respect progress made in women's rights, but only according to their strict interpretation of Shariah or Islamic law.
The Islamists proceeded to immediately abolish the Ministry of Women's Affairs, indicating a tough path ahead for women in the country.
The new government formed by the Taliban is all male, comprising mostly mullahs. Even in the Ministry of Education, female professionals are absent.
"The Taliban's Higher Education Ministry consulted only male teachers and students on resuming the function of universities," a lecturer who worked at a Kabul university during the last government told AFP news agency in late August. She said that showed "the systematic prevention of women's participation in decision making" and "a gap between the Taliban's commitments and actions."
But women will be allowed to study at university, although there will be a ban on mixed classes, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the Taliban's acting higher education minister, said recently.
Taliban values 'are not our values'
He announced that the Taliban would develop "a reasonable Islamic curriculum in accordance with Islamic, national, and historical values." Women and girls have already been banned from playing sports.
In an interview with the Australian broadcaster SBS, the deputy head of the Taliban's cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said women's sport was considered neither appropriate nor necessary.
"I don't think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women play cricket," Wasiq said. "In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this."
"Their values are not our values," Basira Taheri from Herat city told DW. "The Taliban fighters have lived all their lives in some remote places, far away from civilization, and have only learned to fight. They can hardly read or write. Many of them have no idea of life in a city. Afghan society has changed over the past 20 years. We will not allow the Taliban to take away our rights," she said.
In Herat, Taheri organizes demonstrations for women's rights. At a recent protest, she was injured by Taliban fighters. She said she was lucky not to have been hit by a bullet. "It was a peaceful gathering. Several women made short speeches. Across from us, the Taliban were standing with weapons in their hands, watching us. Suddenly they started shooting, first in the air and then at us. I know that several women were seriously injured."
International community support needed
Protests by and criticism from women's rights activists appear to make the Taliban nervous. Journalists who report on women's issues and demonstrations are being brutally beaten. Recently, two employees of the prominent newspaper Etilatrus were arrested by Taliban fighters and severely beaten.
"This is only a small part of what the Taliban did to journalists of the newspaper," editor Saki Darjabai said.
One video shows a journalist unable to walk by himself, while another shows a journalist standing alone but barely able to speak.
"We need the support and solidarity of the international community," says a women's rights activist from Kabul, who asked not to be named.
She does not believe Afghan women can organize quickly and effectively against the Taliban. The shock of the Islamists' takeover of Kabul still runs deep, she says, pointing out that the Taliban also cut off telephone and internet connections.
"The Taliban want global recognition. So, the international community must stand up for us and our rights. Under pressure from outside, they will give in," the activist stressed.
This article was translated from German.
Since the Taliban took over power, their decrees and crackdowns have shown how the Islamic fundamentalist regime wants to repress the rights of women and girls.
Women's rights activists have been at the forefront of anti-Taliban protests since the group seized power last month
"For security reasons, demonstrations are banned in Afghanistan from now on," reads the first official decree issued by the Afghan Interior Ministry under the Taliban regime.
The statement added that people must secure official permission before any protests, and security agencies must be informed of all details such as the kind of slogans that will be used during the demonstrations.
The ministry, which is now led by Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is wanted by the United States on terrorism charges, warned that protesters will face "severe legal consequences" in case of violations of the new rules.
The ban seems to be mainly targeted at female activists, who have been at the forefront of anti-Taliban protests since the Islamic fundamentalist group seized power in the country last month.
"We will continue to demonstrate for our rights, even without official permission," Mahbobe Nasrin Dockt, a Kabul-based women's rights activist told DW. "The Taliban-led Interior Ministry has not even started its work properly. Who should we seek permission from? It's also obvious that they won't give us permission once they know why we want to gather."
Nasrin Dockt has been organizing demonstrations in the Afghan capital Kabul against the nation's new rulers since early September. At a recent protest, she was arrested by the Taliban. "They entered my data into a system and warned me not to organize any more demonstrations. But I will not be intimidated. If we don't fight, we've lost."
Taliban 'don't see women as part of the population': Khalida Popal
Tough path ahead for Afghan women
Since the Taliban takeover, Afghan women have been afraid of reprisals and new restrictions of their rights by the Islamists. When the radical group was last in power, between 1996 and 2001, it banished women from education and public life.
Now, after seizing power again, the group pledged to respect progress made in women's rights, but only according to their strict interpretation of Shariah or Islamic law.
The Islamists proceeded to immediately abolish the Ministry of Women's Affairs, indicating a tough path ahead for women in the country.
The new government formed by the Taliban is all male, comprising mostly mullahs. Even in the Ministry of Education, female professionals are absent.
"The Taliban's Higher Education Ministry consulted only male teachers and students on resuming the function of universities," a lecturer who worked at a Kabul university during the last government told AFP news agency in late August. She said that showed "the systematic prevention of women's participation in decision making" and "a gap between the Taliban's commitments and actions."
But women will be allowed to study at university, although there will be a ban on mixed classes, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, the Taliban's acting higher education minister, said recently.
Taliban values 'are not our values'
He announced that the Taliban would develop "a reasonable Islamic curriculum in accordance with Islamic, national, and historical values." Women and girls have already been banned from playing sports.
In an interview with the Australian broadcaster SBS, the deputy head of the Taliban's cultural commission, Ahmadullah Wasiq, said women's sport was considered neither appropriate nor necessary.
"I don't think women will be allowed to play cricket because it is not necessary that women play cricket," Wasiq said. "In cricket, they might face a situation where their face and body will not be covered. Islam does not allow women to be seen like this."
"Their values are not our values," Basira Taheri from Herat city told DW. "The Taliban fighters have lived all their lives in some remote places, far away from civilization, and have only learned to fight. They can hardly read or write. Many of them have no idea of life in a city. Afghan society has changed over the past 20 years. We will not allow the Taliban to take away our rights," she said.
In Herat, Taheri organizes demonstrations for women's rights. At a recent protest, she was injured by Taliban fighters. She said she was lucky not to have been hit by a bullet. "It was a peaceful gathering. Several women made short speeches. Across from us, the Taliban were standing with weapons in their hands, watching us. Suddenly they started shooting, first in the air and then at us. I know that several women were seriously injured."
International community support needed
Protests by and criticism from women's rights activists appear to make the Taliban nervous. Journalists who report on women's issues and demonstrations are being brutally beaten. Recently, two employees of the prominent newspaper Etilatrus were arrested by Taliban fighters and severely beaten.
"This is only a small part of what the Taliban did to journalists of the newspaper," editor Saki Darjabai said.
One video shows a journalist unable to walk by himself, while another shows a journalist standing alone but barely able to speak.
"We need the support and solidarity of the international community," says a women's rights activist from Kabul, who asked not to be named.
She does not believe Afghan women can organize quickly and effectively against the Taliban. The shock of the Islamists' takeover of Kabul still runs deep, she says, pointing out that the Taliban also cut off telephone and internet connections.
"The Taliban want global recognition. So, the international community must stand up for us and our rights. Under pressure from outside, they will give in," the activist stressed.
This article was translated from German.
Taliban say women can study at university but classes must be segregated
2021/9/13
©Reuters
(Reuters) -Women in Afghanistan will be allowed to study in universities as the country seeks to rebuild after decades of war but gender-segregation and Islamic dress code will be mandatory, the Taliban's new Higher Education minister said on Sunday.
The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said the new Taliban government, named last week, would "start building the country on what exists today" and did not want to turn the clock back 20 years to when the movement was last in power.
He said female students would be taught by women wherever possible and classrooms would remain separated, in accordance with the movement's interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
"Thanks to God we have a high number of women teachers. We will not face any problems in this. All efforts will be made to find and provide women teachers for female students," he told a news conference in Kabul.
The issue of women's education has been one of the central questions facing the Taliban as they seek to persuade the world that they have changed since the harsh fundamentalist rule they imposed in the 1990s when women were largely banned from studying or working outside the home.
Taliban officials have said women will be able to study and work in accordance with sharia law and local cultural traditions but strict dress rules will apply. Haqqani said hijab religious veils would be mandatory for all female students but did not specify if this meant headscarves or compulsory face coverings.
On Saturday, a group, apparently made up of women students in black robes that covered them completely from head to foot, demonstrated in Kabul in support of the rules on dress and separate classrooms.
Haqqani said where no women teachers were available special measures would be adopted to ensure separation.
"When there is really a need, men can also teach (women) but in accordance with sharia, they should observe the veil," he said. Classrooms would be curtained off to divide male and female students where necessary and teaching could also be done through streaming or closed circuit TV.
Classrooms divided by curtains https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/curtain-divides-male-female-students-afghan-universities-reopen-2021-09-06 have already been seen in many places since the Western-backed government collapse and the Taliban seized Kabul last month.
Haqqani told reporters that gender segregation would be enforced across Afghanistan and all subjects taught at colleges would also be reviewed in the coming months.
(Reporting by Islamabad newsroom. Editing by Jane Merriman)
2021/9/13
©Reuters
(Reuters) -Women in Afghanistan will be allowed to study in universities as the country seeks to rebuild after decades of war but gender-segregation and Islamic dress code will be mandatory, the Taliban's new Higher Education minister said on Sunday.
The minister, Abdul Baqi Haqqani, said the new Taliban government, named last week, would "start building the country on what exists today" and did not want to turn the clock back 20 years to when the movement was last in power.
He said female students would be taught by women wherever possible and classrooms would remain separated, in accordance with the movement's interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
"Thanks to God we have a high number of women teachers. We will not face any problems in this. All efforts will be made to find and provide women teachers for female students," he told a news conference in Kabul.
The issue of women's education has been one of the central questions facing the Taliban as they seek to persuade the world that they have changed since the harsh fundamentalist rule they imposed in the 1990s when women were largely banned from studying or working outside the home.
Taliban officials have said women will be able to study and work in accordance with sharia law and local cultural traditions but strict dress rules will apply. Haqqani said hijab religious veils would be mandatory for all female students but did not specify if this meant headscarves or compulsory face coverings.
On Saturday, a group, apparently made up of women students in black robes that covered them completely from head to foot, demonstrated in Kabul in support of the rules on dress and separate classrooms.
Haqqani said where no women teachers were available special measures would be adopted to ensure separation.
"When there is really a need, men can also teach (women) but in accordance with sharia, they should observe the veil," he said. Classrooms would be curtained off to divide male and female students where necessary and teaching could also be done through streaming or closed circuit TV.
Classrooms divided by curtains https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/curtain-divides-male-female-students-afghan-universities-reopen-2021-09-06 have already been seen in many places since the Western-backed government collapse and the Taliban seized Kabul last month.
Haqqani told reporters that gender segregation would be enforced across Afghanistan and all subjects taught at colleges would also be reviewed in the coming months.
(Reporting by Islamabad newsroom. Editing by Jane Merriman)
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