Naghma, 26, is one of the few women still allowed to go to work in southern Uruzgan province. She is a government employee and says that the Taliban’s restrictions have made life unbearable for them. Though Naghma’s office is separated from those of her male colleagues, she is not allowed to remove her burqa, even when behind her desk. “It is the order of the Taliban leaders to wear a black hijab and burqa in 40-degree summer heat, so that men’s eyes do not fall on me, while I choke under a burqa myself.”
Wearing a burqa at work in scorching summer weather is not her only concern these days. She must also be accompanied by a male chaperone every time she leaves her house. If she doesn’t have a male chaperone, then no taxi will pick her up, she explains. “A few days ago, when no taxi driver picked me up, I called my brothers to take me home, but they made excuses and did not come,” she says “When I got home on foot, my brothers denounced me.”
“They said, ‘We will feed you, so why are you working? If the Taliban arrest you, how can we face the people?’” recounts Naghma.
It was in December 2021 that the Taliban severely curtailed women’s right to move when they announced that women cannot travel more than 72 kilometres without being accompanied by a mahram, a male family member. In its actual implementation, the Taliban stop women travelling within cities and ask why they are without a mahram. In addition, in early May, the Taliban made it mandatory for women to wear the burqa or Arabic hijab in public. According to that decree, if women disobeyed, their male “guardians” would be warned and punished.
On August 22, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice provided specific details of the mandatory decree: “Burqas and black Arabic hijabs are both permissible for women, as long as they are not tight, thin, ornate and fragrant.”
Saanga, who used to work as a lawyer in Nangarhar province, says that the Taliban’s goal by imposing the mandatory hijab is to eliminate women’s presence in society. Under family pressure and in the conservative environment of her area, she has worn a burqa outside her house for more than a decade. Before the Taliban, wearing a burqa meant she could still go to school and have a job. She lost her job after the Taliban regained power.
In April, Saanga applied for a job in an international organization that had announced positions for female applicants. They invited her for a job interview, but their conditions for her upcoming interview shocked her. She shared a copy of their email with Zan Times, including this section:
“Note Female Candidates: Please dress Burqa (Chadari) while visiting our office and in the meantime have your Mahram (Husband, Brother or Father) with yourself and kindly share your Mahram name with us.”
Later that day, Saanga went to a job interview with her brother. However, since no other female candidate showed up, the organization has reposted the job and asked Saanga to reapply.
Saanga says that many working women are the heads of their families and do not have a mahram, which means the Taliban has stripped them of the right to work.
Women and girls account for more than half the people in Afghanistan who are struggling to eat, according to the World Food Programme, with 85 percent of female-headed households resorting to drastic measures to feed their families, compared to 62 percent of male-headed households. As well, decades of war have left the country with hundreds of thousands of widows who have little chance of finding employment under the Taliban.
Women accounted for 20 percent of the workforce before the Taliban took over. The UN’s International Labour Organization estimates that women’s participation had decreased by 16 percent in just the third quarter of 2021. As well, the restrictions on women’s work has caused an estimated loss of up to five percent of the gross domestic product, or $1 billion, according to the United Nations Development Programme.
Now, fewer and fewer women are allowed to work in the education and health sectors. They say that the Taliban restrictions of imposing crippling dress codes and the mahram requirement makes work and life extremely difficult for them.
Both Saanga and Naghma refuse to stop working. With her small salary, Naghma pays for her and her sister’s education. “I will work under the harshest of conditions, but I don’t stay at home, because if I stay at home, I will be eliminated,” says Naghma
“The situation cannot remain like this, we should not accept it and we must continue resisting our situation,” Saanga said.
Names have been changed to protect the identity of the interviewees.
