ALL non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Afghanistan which employ women will be shut down, the Taliban has warned.

The fundamentalist movement, which returned to power in 2021 after defeating the 20-year US-led occupation, originally instructed NGOs to stop employing women — allegedly because they were not enforcing headscarf-wearing in line with the Taliban’s repressive dress code for women — two years ago. On Sunday night, the Taliban threatened to take action against those which have not complied.

The Economy Ministry said NGOs continuing to employ women will have their licences to operate revoked, adding that women are no longer permitted to work in any institution not rundirectly by the Taliban.

NGOs including aid agencies have reported increased harassment of their staff by the Taliban’s morality police.

The rights of women have been steadily eroded in Afghanistan since Taliban rule resumed. Bans on them receiving secondary and higher education have been followed by ever-wider restrictions on their right to work, with women banned recently even from training as midwives. Since male medics are prohibited from touching female patients, midwives warn that the ban is likely to increase Afghanistan’s already high rate of death in childbirth.

The Ministry of Vice and Virtue says women should only leave their homes when “essential” an must be accompanied by a male chaperone prescribes on long journeys (of over 46 miles). It has also banned them from visiting gyms and parks.

Women have also been banned from singing or praying in public in case their voices are a source of temptation to men, while another decree published last weekend states that buildings should not have windows in places where a woman might be visible from outside.

Windows should not overlook or look into areas such as yards or kitchens. Where a window looks into such a space, the person responsible for that property must find a way to obscure this view, to “remove harm,” by installing a wall, fence or screen, the decree states, placing local governments in charge of enforcing the new rule.