While the Taliban have promised Afghan women to work and study normally, female university professors have been barricaded from school

Reporter | Tian Siqi

In early July, as the Taliban attacked the city, some people walked into the offices of Azizi Bank in Kandahar, Afghanistan's second-largest city, and ordered the nine women working there to leave. The gunmen sent them home and told them not to return to work and that their male relatives could take their places.

Noor Khatera, 43, who works in the accounting department of Aziz Bank, told Reuters: "It's really weird not to be allowed to work, but that's all there is to it now." I taught myself English and learned to operate a computer, but now I have to find a place where I can work with more women. ”

After the Taliban invaded the capital, Kabul, many Afghan women fell into deep panic, fearing they would be reincarnated by the Taliban when they came to power from 1996-2001.

In response, the Taliban said on Tuesday, August 17, that they were allowing Afghan women to work normally, get an education, and live a normal life.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said: "We promise that there will be no violence against women" and that "prejudice against women is not allowed, but Islamic values are our framework." ”

Pressed by the media for details, Mujahid said women could participate in society "within the confines of Islamic law": "We will allow women to work and study within our framework" and "women will be very active in our society." ”

But asked about dress codes and what role women would be able to play in afghanistan's workforce, Mujahid did not elaborate. A Taliban spokesman was quoted as saying that women could continue their university education without having to wear a burqa that covered their entire face and full body, but that they had to wear a headscarf "for their own safety."

On Tuesday, a female television anchor at private broadcaster Tolo conducted a camera interview with a Taliban official in a studio that did not conform to imaginary Taliban rules. Analysts say the group is running a complex public relations campaign hoping to win the approval of Afghans and the international community.

Hosna Jalil, Afghanistan's former deputy women's deputy minister who lives in Washington, told Sky News: "They send a reassuring message about empowering women with fundamental rights, but in practice they are acting differently." ”

Jalil added that the Taliban cannot change their principles and values over the years because that's how they convince their followers to fight for them.

"They fear that the release of these reassuring messages is to ensure a peaceful transfer of power from the Taliban, with all doors closed to them once international forces withdraw from Afghanistan."

During the Taliban regime from 1996 to 2001, women were unable to work or get an education and from the age of 8 had to wear burqas, accompanied by male relatives, to take to the streets. They can't wear high heels, they can't ride bicycles or motorcycles, they can't call taxis without guardians, and they can't speak loudly in public. Women are not allowed to appear on radio, television or at public meetings.

American photojournalist Lynsey Addario wrote about the lives of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban: One morning in 1999, Shukya Barakzai woke up feeling dizzy, but she needed a male guardian to leave home to see a doctor. Since her husband was at work and she had no sons, Barakzai had to shave off her 2-year-old daughter's hair, dress her as a boy, and impersonate her guardian.

Barakzai, dressed in a burqa, left the doctor's office in the afternoon with a prescription, but just on the way to the drugstore, a truck carrying the Taliban stopped next to her. Two men jumped out of the truck and began whipping Barakzai. "It's as if they don't know why either, they just want to hit you, hurt you, disrespect you. It's what they like. ”

Twenty-two years later, despite the Taliban's corresponding commitments at the latest press conference, it is still impossible to judge whether the Taliban's interpretation of Sharia law will still be as harsh as it was when it last came to power. There are now sporadic indications that Afghan women are increasingly restricted, as if they were back in the past.

Women in some provinces have been told they cannot leave their homes without being accompanied by male relatives. Witnesses also said that in the western capital city of Herat, the Taliban guarded the university's gates with guns and prevented female students and teachers from entering the campus.

A female university professor in Herat told the Financial Times that two days after the Taliban took over the city, she chose to go to work in a dark robe that covered her head and hung down to her feet. But just a week ago, she was wearing a colorful cloak, a scarf loosely wrapped around her head, and light makeup.

The professor said security guards at the entrance to the university told her: "Women cannot enter for the time being" and that "the message from the Taliban is that they will not deduct my salary because I am absent from work now, but will decide later whether to allow women to enter the university." ”