KABUL, Sept. 21 : The Taliban said on Tuesday Afghan girls will be allowed to return to school "as soon as possible", after their movement faced shock and fury over their effective exclusion of women and girls from public life.
The hardliners' spokesman meanwhile announced the remaining members of Afghanistan's new all-male government, weeks after the militants seized Kabul in an offensive that shocked the world.
The Taliban were notorious for their brutal, oppressive rule from 1996 to 2001, when women were largely barred from work and school, including being banned from leaving their homes unless accompanied by a male relative.
One month after seizing power and pledging a softer version of their previous regime, the Islamists have incrementally stripped away at Afghans' freedoms.
During the weekend, the education ministry issued a diktat ordering male teachers and students back to secondary school -- but made no mention of the country's women educators and girl pupils.
At a press conference in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said of the return of girls to school: "We are finalising things... it will happen as soon as possible."
He added that "a safe learning environment" needed to be established beforehand.
- No female ministers -
The Taliban announced their new leadership earlier in September, drawn up exclusively from loyalist ranks. Announcing the final line-up on Tuesday, Mujahid made no reference to the now closed women's affairs ministry. No female ministers were named.
The Taliban now face the colossal task of ruling Afghanistan, an aid-dependent country whose economic troubles have only deepened since the Islamists seized power and outside funding was frozen.
Many government employees have not been paid for months, with food prices soaring. "We have the funds but need time to get the process working," Mujahid said.
The Taliban have also slashed women's access to work, with officials previously telling them to stay at home for their own security until segregation under the group's restrictive interpretation of sharia law can be implemented.
While the country's new rulers have not issued a formal policy outright banning women from working, directives by individual officials have amounted to their exclusion from the workplace.
The acting mayor of the capital Kabul has said any municipal jobs currently held by women would be filled by men.
Although still marginalised, Afghan women have fought for and gained basic rights in the past 20 years, becoming lawmakers, judges, pilots and police officers, though mostly limited to large cities.
Under the ousted US-backed government, hundreds of thousands of women entered the workforce -- with many becoming their families' sole breadwinners after becoming widowed, or when their husbands were maimed during decades of conflict.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept 20: Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.
KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept 20: Female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home, with work only allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men, the interim mayor of Afghanistan’s capital said Sunday, detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rulers.
KABUL, September 9: As a nurse at one of Kabul's main hospitals, Latifa Alizada was the breadwinner for her family, providing for her three young boys and unemployed husband.
Now -- since the Taliban rolled into Afghanistan's capital -- she too is jobless, and worried about the future.
The 27-year-old left her role at Jamhuriat Hospital because the hardline Islamist group said salaries would not be paid, and imposed rules that would force her to wear a face veil and be segregated from male colleagues.
"I have left my job because there is no salary. There is no salary at all," she said, holding the hands of two of her boys who chewed on sweetcorn cobs.
"If I go there, they say 'do not work with this style of dress. Do not work with men. Work with women'. This is impossible," she told AFP at a street market in Kabul.
"For us, there is no difference between men and women, because we are medical workers." Afghans like Alizada worry about what lies ahead under the Taliban.
Food prices have gone up at markets, the cost of fuel has risen and there are fewer opportunities to make money.
The United Nations this week warned prices for essential goods were soaring in Afghanistan, adding: "There are fears of food shortages, higher inflation, and a slump in the currency all resulting in an intensification of the humanitarian emergency across the country."
Many government services are no longer functioning, while the international community -- which has long propped up the aid-dependent economy -- hesitates over funding Afghanistan.
- Cash in short supply -
In some sectors that are operating, the Taliban have offered wildly different salaries.
A former customs official, who did not want to be named for security reasons, told AFP he had worked at the Spin Boldak border crossing with Pakistan for more than seven years.
Under the previous government he earned about $240 per month, but the Taliban said they would pay him just $110.
"It is up to you if you want to continue your job, or quit," the Taliban told him. The official said he resigned after weighing up his salary against the cost of the long commute to work.
The sight of big crowds queueing to get into banks to access cash is now commonplace across Afghanistan.
The country's central bank only has access to a fraction of its usual financing, cut off from the international banking system and access to the country's foreign currency reserves.
It means cash is in short supply and the Taliban are enforcing a withdrawal limit of $200 per person each week.
In the capital on Wednesday about 150 men jostled in the midday sun outside a branch of Kabul Bank, where government employees under the last administration held accounts.
An armed security guard clutched an electric cable to use as a whip in case the crowd grew too boisterous as they queued for one of the two ATMs.
Abdullah told AFP he travelled overnight from the northeastern province of Takhar, which borders Tajikistan, to get to the branch at the crack of dawn -- and he was still at the back of the queue at noon.
- Worried about the future -
"The problem is that after the collapse of the government, all the banks were closed," the 31-year-old former army commando said.
He told AFP that some soldiers like him could not access their salaries in the months leading up to the Taliban takeover in mid-August.
"I was at my post for three or four months. My salary was in the bank and I couldn't get it," he said.
Other members of the security forces complained of not getting paid at all in the months leading up to the Taliban takeover. A kitchenware shopkeeper in the capital, who did not want to give his name for security reasons, told AFP had no customers.
"Since the changes, all business has stopped," he said, sitting on a stool in front of his empty store.
"We are facing lots of problems. People are staying in their homes because there are no jobs. There is no-one to buy from us."
With high rents and next-to-no income, he worried about looking after his family of five. "We cannot find the money to feed ourselves. People are concerned about how to find their meals, morning and night. Everyone is worried about their future."
KABUL, Aug 28: The Taliban has called on women who work for the health ministry to return to their jobs, reported BBC.
Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Twitter that female staff should "attend their regular duties" both in Kabul and other provinces.
He made no mention of other women employees. All had previously been told to stay at home for their safety.
Afghan women have expressed fear for their future following the Taliban's take over the country.
Zabihullah Mujahid also issued a directive telling the people of Kabul to hand in "weapons, ammunition and other government goods" within a week so that there would be "no need for offenders to be prosecuted if they are discovered".
