Taliban on the health sector: some Afghan women are supposed to work

It is still unclear whether women in Afghanistan will be able to pursue their professions after the Taliban came to power. At least in the health sector, they should now return to work. Nothing stands in the way of doing their work.

The radical Islamist Taliban have urged women working in Afghanistan’s public health sector to return to work. The Ministry of Health is instructing all female employees in the capital and the provinces to return to their jobs, according to a tweet by Taliban spokesman Sabiullah Mujahid. Nothing stands in the way of doing their work.

It is still largely unclear whether women in Afghanistan will be able to continue doing their jobs after the Taliban came to power. So far there have only been more specific statements in the health and education sectors that women should return to work.

In the health sector, there had recently been reports from the north of the country that midwives, for example, were no longer allowed to attend meetings with male doctors.

Journalists were sent home

In a press conference this week, the Mujahid said that working women should stay at home until new rules were introduced. They received their salaries anyway.

It was unclear whether he was only talking about women employed by government agencies or also about private companies. Journalists had reported last week that they had been sent home by Taliban fighters.

Doubts about statements by the Taliban

Since taking power in mid-August, the Taliban have been trying to convince the public that they have changed and that they now respect women’s rights. However, many Afghans are skeptical.

When the Taliban ruled between 1996 and 2001, women were not allowed to go out and work without a male escort, and girls were not allowed to go to school. Women were not allowed to be treated by male doctors, which severely restricted their health care. Women believed to have committed adultery were flogged and stoned.