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According to the Taliban, women - here internally displaced persons in a camp near Kabul in July of this year - are to be banned more rigidly from public life in Afghanistan.
If they show themselves, then in full veil
Photo: WAKIL KOHSAR / AFP
In Afghanistan, employees of all national and international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are to be suspended from their work until further notice.
The state's Ministry of Economic Affairs demanded this in a letter on Saturday.
The reason for this is that the women did not comply with the regulations of the Taliban leadership in relation to wearing a hijab, i.e. a headscarf.
If an organization does not comply with this order, its license will be revoked, the letter said.
The extent to which the order also applies to United Nations organizations, which are strongly represented in Afghanistan, initially remained open.
A spokesman said, according to the Reuters news agency, the order applies to the organizations that work under the Afghan coordination authority Acbar.
This includes around 180 local and international NGOs, but not the UN.
However, the United Nations often outsources tasks to organizations registered in Afghanistan.
Aid providers explained that female employees are often important so that women have access to help.
women demonstrate
Since taking power in August 2021, the Islamists have massively restricted women's rights in Afghanistan.
Many women were not allowed to return to their jobs.
Girls and women are now largely excluded from public life.
Just a few days ago, the Taliban banned the country's female students from private and public universities with immediate effect.
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In the western Afghan city of Herat, dozens of women demonstrated on Saturday against their ban from the country's universities.
With slogans like "Education is our right," they took to the streets in small groups, a demonstrator told the German Press Agency.
The women gathered in front of the provincial governor's office.
The Taliban then broke up the protests with water cannons and batons, it said.
Videos on social networks showed a fire engine spraying the demonstrators with a liquid.
The Taliban showed an increased military presence in the capital Kabul on Saturday.
There, too, dozens of women demonstrated against the recently imposed university ban on Thursday.
At least one of the women has reportedly been missing since then.
mar/dpa/Reuters