GEIS-新闻详情

Some women brave fears to return to work at Kabul airport

2021-09-12 00:00:00.0 海峡时报-亚洲原网页

KABUL (AFP) - Less than a month after the Taliban rolled into the Afghan capital, Ms Rabia Jamal made a tough decision - she would brave the hardliners and return to work at the airport.

With the Islamists saying women should stay at home for their own security the risks were all too clear, but the 35-year-old mother of three felt she had little choice.

"I need money to support my family," said Ms Rabia, wearing a navy-blue suit and make-up.

"I felt tension at home... I felt very bad," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP). "Now I feel better."

Of the more than 80 women working at the airport before Kabul fell to the Taliban on Aug 15, just 12 have returned to their jobs.

But they are among very few women in the capital allowed to return to work. The Taliban has told most not to go back until further notice.

Six of the women airport workers were standing at the main entrance on Saturday (Sept 11), chatting and laughing while waiting to scan and search female passengers taking a domestic flight.

Ms Rabia's sister, 49-year-old Qudsiya Jamal, told AFP the Taliban takeover had "shocked" her.

"I was very afraid," said the mother of five, who is also her family's sole provider. "My family was scared for me - they told me not to go back - but I am happy now, relaxed... no problems so far."

Women's rights in Afghanistan were sharply curtailed under the Taliban's 1996-2001 rule, but since returning to power the group claims it will be less extreme.

Women will be allowed to attend university as long as classes are segregated by sex or at least divided by a curtain, the Taliban's education authority has said, but females must also wear an abaya, an all-covering robe, and face-covering niqab veil.

Still, Ms Alison Davidian, a representative for United Nations Women in Afghanistan, warned last Wednesday that the Taliban was already neglecting its promise to respect Afghan women's rights.

Afghan women's rights defenders and civil activists protesting in front of the presidential palace in Kabul on Sept 3, 2021. PHOTO: REUTERS

At the airport, which is returning to action after the hurried United States withdrawal left it unusable, Ms Rabia says she will keep working unless she is forced to stop.

Under new rules, women may work "in accordance with the principles of Islam", the Taliban has decreed, but few details have yet been given as to what exactly that might mean.