By RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi
June 18, 2024

Shugufta, an elementary school teacher, earned around $300 per month under the previous Western-backed Afghan government.

But after the Taliban seized power in 2021, the extremist group cut the salaries of female government employees by half.

Despite her lower income, Shugufta was relieved to work as the country grappled with an economic meltdown after the Taliban takeover.

The hard-line Islamist group has barred thousands of women employed by the previous government from returning to their jobs. Only women whose jobs cannot be done by men according to the militants’ strict interpretation of Shari’a law — including doctors, nurses, and teachers — have been permitted to work.

But in a major blow, the Taliban-led government last week issued a decree that set the monthly salaries of all female government employees at 5,000 afghanis, or around $70, regardless of their job, qualifications, or experience.

For many women, that means a drop of up to 75 percent in their wages at a time when Afghanistan is grappling with mass unemployment and rising poverty.

“It is impossible to live on this income,” Shugufta’s mother, Saliha, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, told RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi. “Our financial problems have skyrocketed.”

The decision has been condemned by Afghan and international rights activists, who said the move illustrated the Taliban’s discrimination against women.

Female state employees, some of whom are sole breadwinners, said they will struggle to feed their families.

The Taliban’s decision came ahead of Eid al-Adha on June 17, one of the biggest holidays of the Islamic calendar.

“The Taliban didn’t listen to our pleas to pay us our full salaries this month,” said Muzhda, a female government employee from the western city of Herat.

Muzhda told Radio Azadi that she did not know how she would be able to afford rent, food, and medicine for her family, who depend on her income.

Afghanistan has been gripped by the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. Millions of Afghans are on the verge of starvation, according to the United Nations.

Nazifa Haqpal, a British-based Afghan researcher, said the Taliban’s decision to halve the salaries of female public workers “constitutes systematic discrimination.”

“Women who work in government institutions and important fields like medicine are earning less while their male colleagues are receiving a higher salary,” she told Radio Azadi.

Volker Turk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said the “discriminatory and profoundly arbitrary decision further deepens the erosion of human rights in Afghanistan.”

In a June 13 statement, he called on the Taliban to “rescind all laws, instructions, edicts, and other measures that discriminate against women and girls.”

During its nearly three years in power, the militant group has severely curtailed women and girls’ appearances, freedom of movement, and right to work and study.

Saji Behgam, an Afghan women’s rights activist, said the Taliban’s decision will cripple women-led households, including widows.

“Where should these women go?” she told Radio Azadi. “Should they just commit suicide?”

Written by Abubakar Siddique based on reporting by RFE/RL’s Radio Azadi

Copyright (c) 2024. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Ste 400, Washington DC 20036.

Related

• UN expert condemns Taliban ‘crimes’ against Afghan women, girls
• Human Rights should establish mechanism to hold Taliban accountable: HRW
• Barr: UN ignores its own rapporteur to appease Taliban
• Systematic Violence Against Afghan Women Shouldn’t Be Normalised, Says UN Official
• World Should Hold Taliban Accountable For Crimes Against Women, Says HRW Researcher