BAHARIN LEHIB

Afghanistan- Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan on August 15, 2021, women have been banned from schools, workplaces, salons, gyms and national parks.

The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice has appointed people to all government institutions to teach religion to employees.

According to the ministry, “During the twenty years of the infidels’ presence, the Afghan people turned to infidelity and now they must learn religion.” Public employees think this practice is insulting. In addition, the public employees must pass a religious test to stay employed. The public employees have been suffering from the delay in payment of their salaries since last winter. At the beginning of 2025, Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada ordered a reduction in the salaries of public employees as part of the Taliban’s cost-cutting strategies. According to the latest statistics, many public employees, especially women, have been dismissed in recent months. The Taliban’s Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs has recently dismissed around 120 female employees from state-run kindergartens in Kabul and 91 female employees from the Radio Television of Afghanistan (RTA), the public-broadcasting organization of Afghanistan based in Kabul, over the budget cuts in the country.

‘We are afraid of losing our job’

NuJINHA spoke to several women teachers in Kabul about the recent salary cuts and the new wave of layoffs among public employees in the country. “We are afraid of losing our job,” they told us. “I am a teacher in Kabul,” said Reyhane Reyhan. “My husband works in the military. We are both afraid of being fired. We do not know how we will earn a living for our family of five if we are fired.”

“I live every day in fear of being fired,” said Ariana Nevab, who works as a teacher in one of the districts of Kabul. I am the only breadwinner of my family. If I am fired, I will be confined to home, like many women.”

Yasemin Yar, mother of four, lost her husband in a suicide attack near the Ministry of Defense before the Taliban came to power. “After losing my husband, I started working as a cleaner at a government institution to earn a living for my children,” she said.

“Despite all the threats, I kept working. Although I told the head of the department that I am the only breadwinner of my family, he ignored me and fired me by calling me ‘infidel’”

The only hope is the rising women’s struggle

All three women say they want the Taliban regime to be overthrown and that their only hope is the rising women's struggle inside and outside the country.