By: Rukhshana Media
The Taliban have imposed gender segregation in at least two banks in western Herat province where women have to wait for hours to have their transactions done, women in the province tell Rukhshana Media.
A woman customer of a private bank in the province tells Rukhshana Media that there is a room allocated to women which has the least facility and does not even have enough light and electricity.
“There is no waiting room for women,” she says. “There is a dark room with all the bank files and we have to wait there until our turn.”
Another source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, says that women and their wallets are searched by male Taliban forces at the banks’ entrance gates.
The source adds that there are high-security threats due to a lack of female employees at the banks’ gates in the province.
More than 16 months have passed since the Taliban took full control of Afghanistan and since then they have imposed severe restrictions on women’s personal and social freedoms.
In a recent move, they have closed girls’ education at all levels and banned women from working at local and international NGOs in the country.
Previously women and girls were prohibited from using gyms and public baths.