Afghan employees left jobless as Taliban-rule leads to destruction of buildings, equipment

Taliban has destroyed or set ablaze at least 260 public service office buildings and looted the equipment in 149 districts, informed Nader Naderi, Afghanistan's Head of Independent Administrative Reform and Civil Services Commission (IARCSC) on July 15. Further detailing the impacts of Taliban control over its conquered areas, he said that at least 50,000 civil service employees have been left jobless along with hampering 112 projects as the conflict between the insurgent groups and Afghan military escalated with foreign troop withdrawal. 

In a report by IARCSC published on Thursday, the entity cited its findings to say, “in districts recently seized by the Taliban, provision of essential government services have been halted, and a large number of civil servants have been harmed or displaced from their areas to provincial capitals.”

“There are more than 13 million people living in territory and districts recently captured by the Taliban, who currently have no access to public services,” it added.

Additionally, the Taliban rule which is reported to have spread to at least 85% of the country, the residents have only access to education and health services which are also subjected to further restrictions and constraints. ISARCSC said, “in the first week of the Taliban’s control over Siagerd district in Parwan province, residents transported their sick to Charikar, Panjshir or in Kabul hospitals. A resident of Shinwari district in Parwan province said that due to district hospitals’ inactivity, he had to take his wife, who needed to see a gynaecologist to Charikar hospital with great difficulty.”

Taliban Re-imposes Repressive Policies Against Women

Since capturing several new areas in Afghanistan, the Taliban have re-imposed repressive laws and other retrograde policies on women that defined its iron fist rule from 1996 to 2001 including enforcing their version of Islamic Sharia law. As per news agency ANI, Frud Bezhan and Mustafa Sarwar wrote in Gandhara that the re-imposition of such repressive measures on Afghan women is the new brutal reality of tens of thousands of females who are presently living in areas, now captured by the Taliban. 

Decades ago, when the Taliban had conquered Afghanistan, the insurgent group had forced the women to cover themselves from head to toe. Bezhan and Sarwar wrote that the Taliban also forced women to limit education and required each female to be accompanied by a male relative when outdoors. Even though the Afghan government had removed most of the repressive laws, the measures have returned under the control of the extremist group as the militants continue to gain ground and the Afghan military appeared weak. The re-imposition of such laws came despite the Taliban claiming repeatedly that it has changed its ways.

IMAGE: AP