The Taliban’s Vice and Virtue officials in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif have given a week’s notice to female shopkeepers and street vendors in the city to close their businesses.
KabulNow spoke to a number of female shopkeepers at Mazar’s City Walk Shopping Centre, who confirmed that they had been given a notice to close their businesses. At least 30 women at the shopping centre, they said, were affected by the closure order. The businesswomen told KabulNow that the group’s decision will have a devastating impact on their lives. And they pleaded that Taliban officials in the city reconsider their decision.
Amid rising poverty in the country, and the worsening humanitarian crisis following the Taliban’s bans on women from universities and working for NGOs, the group’s notice for women to close their businesses in Mazar-e-Sharif means a further sign of the group’s intent to remove women from public spaces.
