Taliban tell women to stay home for their safety

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(CNN) -

Fear is rising among women and girls in Afghanistan after the Taliban told female workers to stay home, admitting they were not safe in the presence of the militant group's soldiers.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told a news conference on Tuesday that women should not go to work for their own safety, undermining the group's efforts to convince international observers that they would be more tolerant of violence. women than when they were in power for the last time.

The instruction came the same day the World Bank halted funding in Afghanistan, citing concerns about women's safety, and just hours after the UN called for a "transparent and swift investigation" into reports of rights abuses. humans since the Taliban take over.

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Mujahid said the stay-at-home orientation would be temporary and allow the group to find ways to ensure that women are not "treated disrespectfully" or "God forbid, hurt."

He admitted that the move was necessary because Taliban soldiers "keep changing and are not trained."

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"We are happy that they enter the buildings, but we want to make sure that they do not face any concerns," he said.

"Therefore, we have asked them to take time off from work until the situation returns to normal order and the procedures related to women are in place, then they can return to their jobs once it is announced."

When the Taliban were in power for the last time, between 1996 and 2001, the militant group prohibited women from working, prevented them from leaving home unaccompanied and forced them to cover their entire bodies.

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A Taliban fighter walks past a Kabul beauty salon, where images of women are covered with spray paint.

The group has insisted that its new era in power would be more moderate, but Taliban leaders have refused to ensure that women's rights are not stripped and many have already faced violence.

World Bank stops financial support to Afghanistan

The World Bank announced Tuesday that it is halting financial support to Afghanistan amid concerns about the fate of women under Taliban rule, dealing another blow to an economy that relies heavily on foreign aid.

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"We are deeply concerned about the situation in Afghanistan and the impact on the country's development prospects, especially for women," World Bank spokeswoman Marcela Sánchez-Bender said in a statement to CNN.

And five women from Afghanistan's renowned robotics team arrived in Mexico on Tuesday, after receiving humanitarian visas.

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In the first months of the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan, women have been increasingly isolated from society and many have been subjected to harassment and attacks, including the high-profile murder of three female journalists in March.

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In early July, insurgents entered the Azizi Bank offices in the southern city of Kandahar and ordered nine women who worked there to leave, Reuters reported.

The bank tellers were told that their male relatives would take their place.

The UN intervention

Amid growing concern from the international community, the United Nations on Tuesday called for a "transparent and swift investigation" into human rights abuses "committed by all parties to the conflict" after an emergency meeting of the Rights Council. Humans.

However, the agency was criticized by a number of non-profit organizations for holding back on language after adopting the resolution, initially proposed by Pakistan.

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John Fisher, director of Human Rights Watch in Geneva, said in a statement that the UN "failed to create a strong human rights watchdog and failed to fulfill its responsibility to protect the Afghan people."

She said the resolution "is a slap in the face to human rights defenders and Afghan women's rights activists who watch in horror as the rule of law collapses around them."

The Taliban also warned Tuesday that the United States must stick to next week's deadline to withdraw and said they would "no longer allow the evacuation of Afghans," although a source familiar with the situation told CNN on Wednesday that the apparent The ban had not yet had a noticeable effect on arrivals at Kabul airport.

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The source said that some Afghans whose protection is a priority would receive help in the next few hours, although some applicants for the special immigrant visa (SIV) program, an avenue for Afghans who worked for the forces and agencies from the United States left the country, they would have to wait.

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Evacuations continue

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that a total of 19,000 evacuees left Afghanistan in the past 24 hours, including 11,200 people flying in 42 US military aircraft and another 7,800 people who were evacuated by coalition partners.

The number of evacuees dropped slightly from the previous day, when the United States reported that 21,000 people were evacuated from Kabul airport via 37 US military flights carrying 12,700 evacuees, plus 57 coalition flights carrying 8,900 people. .

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"Since the US and coalition forces began the evacuation to date, approximately 88,000 have left Afghanistan safely," said Joint Chiefs of Staff deputy director for regional operations, Army Major General William "Hank. "Taylor, at a press conference on Wednesday.

"Yesterday, every 39 minutes a plane left Kabul airport."

Taylor said there were more than 10,000 people waiting at the airport to depart, and that the number would change as more people arrived at the airport and flights departed.

The frenzied evacuation operation at Kabul airport has given many Afghans the only chance to escape the country in recent days, and crowds outside the facility have increased since the militants took power.

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But US President Joe Biden reiterated that his goal is to meet his Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan, as long as the Taliban do not disrupt ongoing evacuation operations or access to the airport.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh, Sarah Dean, Sheena McKenzie, Jeremy Diamond, Sharon Braithwaite and Matt Egan contributed to this report.

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