Forbidden to hire women in Afghanistan even in NGOs. The Taliban government, with a letter from the Minister of Economy Qari Din Muhammad Hanif, ordered all foreign and domestic non-governmental groups to stop hiring, specifying that violators will have their operating license revoked. The ministry justified its decision by claiming it had received “serious complaints” about female NGO staff for not wearing the “correct” veil, the hijab.
This is the latest restrictive move, in chronological order, by the Taliban against women’s rights and freedoms. Taliban security forces also used a water cannon to disperse women protesters in Herat against a ban on university education for women, according to eyewitness reports. A demonstration organized after last Tuesday the government banned female students from attending universities as well.
In one video, screaming protesters are seen hiding in a side street to escape the water cannon, and then resume the protest. ”We were between 100 and 150,” said Maryam, one of the organizers of the demonstration. “When we started – she added – in Tariqi park the Taliban took branches from the trees and beat us. But we continued.”
The Taliban are not giving in: for them the ban is necessary to prevent the mixing of the sexes in universities and because some subjects taught violate the principles of Islam in their opinion.