The Taliban is asking employed women in Afghanistan to remain inside because they need to train their security forces on how to “deal with” them.
During a press conference Tuesday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters, “Our security forces are not trained [in] how to deal with women — how to speak to women [for] some of them.”
He added, “Until we have full security in place … we ask women to stay home.”
According to Mujahid, the guidance is a “very temporary procedure.” Women will be permitted to go back to work when there is a way to protect them.
Mujahid’s comments come after Waheedullah Hashimi, a senior member of the Taliban, said Afghanistan will be ruled by “Sharia law and that is it.”
He said to Reuters, “There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country. We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is sharia law and that is it.”
Sharia law was enforced the last time the Taliban controlled the country, from 1996 to 2001. Women were required to wear burqas and could be beaten if they went outside without a male guardian, as The Washington Post reported.
During a recent interview with “Good Morning America,” host George Stephanopoulos asked President Joe Biden, “What do we owe the Afghans that are left behind, particularly Afghan women who are facing the prospect of subjugation again?”
He responded, “As many as we can get out, we should.”
Biden continued, “The idea that we’re able to deal with the rights of women around the world by military force is not rational.”
He suggested there are “a lot of places where women are being subjugated,” continuing, “The way to deal with that is not with a military invasion. The way to deal with that is putting economic, diplomatic, and international pressure on them to change their behavior.”