By: Sherin Yousfi
It has been just days since Gulsoom, the only breadwinner of her family of six, has not gone to work. But Gulsoom is already feeling desperate. It’s the second time she has lost her job over Taliban restrictions on women. The first time was not long after the extremists came to power, and Gulsoom lost her job in the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Now, the 28-year-old has lost her job as finance officer for a private organization.
Gulsoom cannot bear unemployment. After losing her Ministry job, it took months of effort, competitive exams, interviews and applications before she landed her finance officer position in Kabul two months ago. But now, all that is gone as well.
“All my efforts were multiplied by zero with one command of the Taliban,” she says, adding that she’s been financially independent since 12th grade of school.
Since regaining power, the Taliban has imposed more and more extreme restrictions on women, with the latest being to ban women from working in all local and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs). In one swoop, thousands more people have been added to the plight of the unemployed in Afghanistan.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has said that depriving women of work only exacerbates the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.
Many women who are the sole income earners for their families are deeply stressed. Thousands like Gulsoom are beyond shocked.
Karishma, 27, was working as a public relations officer in a Turkish organization. Last night, she received a message from her office telling her she could no longer come to work. She lives in a family of eight and says her father is unable to work because of his old age, while her older brother has fled the country in fear of reprisals from the Taliban for being part of the ANSF. Her and one other sister are the only income earners.
“I am completely in shock,” she says. “I was confused about how to buy flour, pay the rent, and everything. We are five sisters who were all students and employees,” she says. “But now we are all at home, grieving, wondering how to move forward with life.”
Karishma has a bachelor’s degree in Administration and Public Policy from Kabul University. She had struggled for years to get where she is now, but feels that all her efforts evaporated overnight.
The ban on women working comes just days after the Taliban suspended girls’ education at every level in the country. The reaction has been strong. Women have taken to the streets to protest, but they have only been met with violence and detainment.
Countries and international organizations have condemned the ban on women working. Major international aid agencies say they’re withdrawing from Afghanistan after the Taliban ban. Aid groups, including Save the Children and the International Rescue Community, CARE International, and the Norwegian Rescue Committee, say they provide critical health care for vulnerable people but
by preventing women from working for N-G-Os, their workforce is effectively halved and their work is less effective.
UNICEF publicly said the ban from working will have a devastating and wide-reaching impact on the provision of health services, food, and education to children. The European Union announced it is reviewing its aid distribution to Afghanistan.
The action has also divided members of the Taliban. Amir Khan Motaqi and Mullah Ghani Baradar, two prominent members of the group, said in Kabul, “People want work, security, and education.”
“I have to beg!”
Pari, a mother of three with a bachelor’s degree in Persian literature, was an employee in an organization funded by Canada. She is the breadwinner of her family after her husband died three years ago in a traffic accident.
Pari, 38, was informed about her dismissal through a phone call from one of her colleagues. She says that thinking about how to feed her children has taken a toll on her psyche and she has not been able to sleep since the call.
“It drives me crazy when I think that in a few days the little money I have saved and the food at home will run out. Where could I go for a loan? Where will I work? My heart is pounding. During the past two days, I don’t know whether I am on the ground or in the sky. I don’t understand what the Taliban really want from women’s lives. How much more miserable could we be than not even having bread to eat?”
She is also worried about her eldest daughter who has finished sixth grade but now is deprived of education by the Taliban decrees.
“I don’t have anyone to help me financially,” she says, choking back tears. “My eldest son is just 12 and cannot do that kind of work. So how do I find bread? In two days, I will have to go begging on the streets.”
After four decades of war in Afghanistan, many men, fathers and sons, have been killed in fighting. As a result, many families are headed by women. Even the Taliban have lost many men to battle, and now have families without a male caretaker. The decree will deeply impact many of these families.
Manizha Ramaki was a professor at a private university in Kabul. But after the Taliban’s ban on girls receiving higher education, she and all her colleagues have also effectively lost their jobs. Ms. Ramaki says that the Taliban did not allow them to enter the university on Thursday. She requested the university not be named in this report.
“My husband was a government employee under the previous government (and lost his job). I was the sole breadwinner of my family, but unfortunately, both of us are now unemployed,” she says. “After a lifetime of education and service in society, we women have been brutally eliminated. The Taliban make decisions about women without considering the economy of the families and the economy of the people based on their complex and intellectual beliefs that have no religious or Sharia basis.”
Hamasa, 42 was a teacher at Zarghona High School in Kabul. Her husband works but the family still relied on her salary to help pay the rent, her children’s studies, and other family needs.
“Most school teachers don’t own their own homes. Our livelihoods only allowed us to rent. It was good to be able to help towards the house expenses. But with this situation now, I am worried about how to pay the house rent at the end of the month and how to cover our expenses.”
To justify its ban on women working in local and international NGOs, the Taliban’s Ministry of Economy argued it was because of “non-observance of the Islamic hijab in the workplace”. A letter published by the Taliban stated that it recently received serious complaints regarding the women not wearing the Islamic hijab and other non-observance of applicable laws and regulations of the Islamic Emirate related to this matter. The Ministry warned that any delay in implementing its order would be the licenses of the organizations will be revoked.
Rina Amiri, the US Special Envoy for Afghan Women, Girls, and Human Rights decried the Taliban’s decision as “cruel & callous”.
“The Taliban are jeopardizing Afghan lives and pushing the country further down a perilous path,” she tweeted.
Meanwhile, Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Afghanistan, said that the Taliban’s action to ban women’s work requires a decisive response.
Women activists in Afghanistan say this latest move is just another way the Taliban are holding women’s rights hostage for political purposes.
“The Taliban know that their government is not recognized by the world. By restricting women, they want to demonstrate false strength and attract the attention of the world. Unfortunately, the main victims of this policy are women,” Palwasha Hamdard, a women’s rights activist in Kabul, told Rukhshana Media.
