Ban on Working Women Forces Saudi Arabia to Shut Embassy in Kabul

The ban on women in workplaces in Afghanistan has forced Saudi Arabia to shut its embassy in Kabul and moved its people to Islamabad.

 “The reason is the prohibition of female workers in Afghanistan. Some females were working there (at the embassy). One of the big reasons is Mujahideen prohibited them to enter the embassy,” a diplomatic source told CNN-News18.

In December last year, Saudi Arabia condemned a decision by Taliban authorities to bar women from universities. Last month, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation urged the Afghanistan government to lift its ban on women writing university entrance examinations.

The source said Pakistan has also suspended consular services in Kabul after the Peshawar attack in which at least 100 people were killed. So, both countries have virtually frozen diplomatic activity in Kabul, the source added.

Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqqi attacked Pakistan saying it should take care of its own problems and stop blaming Afghanistan for the Peshawar mosque attack.

After the Taliban seized power in August 2021, women have also been pushed out of many government jobs, prevented from travelling without a male relative and ordered to cover up outside of the home, ideally with a burqa, not allowed into parks and banned in gyms. Taliban recently banned women from working in non-governmental organisations. It has already suspended university education for women and secondary schooling for girls.

The United Nations has said the Taliban must immediately revoke their policies targeting women and girls in Afghanistan.

Taliban’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada is under severe pressure from powerful figures in the government to reverse his decision to ban university education for women, sources close to Afghanistan’s ruling dispensation had told CNN-News18.

Interior (Home) Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani and Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqub are set against the much-reviled decision to ban women from universities and are negotiating with Akhundzada to undo the proscription, sources had said.

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