Kabul restaurants owned, staffed by women continue to remain closed under new 'moderate' Taliban

Kabul: Kabul restaurants owned and staffed by women now remain closed after the takeover of Afghanistan by the Taliban. Women-owned businesses, especially restaurants and cafes, have remained closed for the past month since the Taliban entered Kabul city, reported Tolo News. Niki Tabasom spent one million Afs to open a cafe in Kabul three years ago. She said that her cafe’s staff was all women who lost their jobs when the previous government collapsed, Tolo News reported. She used to earn about 20,000 Afs daily from her cafe. Niki Tabasom told Tolo News, “The cafe has been closed since the Taliban came to Kabul. My colleagues and I lost our jobs.” In order to feed their families, women are seeking ways to work and earn money, Tabasom said. “Women are the breadwinners for some families, so these families are facing economic and financial problems,” she added. The cafe’s employees said that each of them is leading a family. Opportunities for work must be found for women. “They should consider our demands. When they don’t pay attention, how will the Taliban start governance?”, said an Afghan businesswoman Qadira. “I was earning my livelihood by working at the cafe for two years. I helped my family,” said Sabrina Sultani. Afghan businesswomen lost millions of Afs as the Taliban took Afghanistan in mid-August. “Investments led by women have unfortunately stopped. They lost their jobs and funds. In some cases, the women have sold their company’s expensive things at a very low price,” said Noor-ul-Haq Omari, head of the Union of Kabul Workers. Dozens of Afghan businesswomen had begun to invest in various fields across the country over the past few years, and now this has stopped after the Taliban takeover of the war-torn country. Meanwhile, rising unemployment in Afghanistan has forced many people to drive their own cars as taxis and sell goods on the country’s streets. Taliban repeatedly has been claiming that women will be given the right to education, work. However, recently some of the caretaker cabinet officials have contradicted saying women cannot work together with men. The Taliban have ruled in accordance with a harsh interpretation of Islamic law and though the outfit has sought to project greater moderation in recent years, many Afghans remain sceptical. Also, appointing hardliners in its new government who oversaw the 20-year fight against the US-led military coalition, with no women included shows lies in store for the Afghan women