The Taliban’s Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice officials in Afghanistan’s southern province of Kandahar has ordered female health workers, in the public and private sectors, not to commute without mahram.
A public health official in Kandahar told KabulNow that the decision was made in a joint meeting of representatives of the ministry of public health and Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice.
A midwife who works at a children’s clinic said she has been told to resign from her job, as she did not have a mahram to commute with.
Kandahar province is the birthplace of t he Taliban and home to its supreme leader, Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada.
The Taliban banned women from working in the public and private sectors soon after recapturing Kabul, but exempted women in the health sector. The group’s restrictions on women and girls include secondary and higher education and working as aid workers.
