Mick Hartley

At least there are some jobs for women under the Taliban: spying on other women:

The Taliban is using female workers to spy on other women to enforce harsh new laws.

Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan regime has banned women from working outside the home or attending school and university.

But some women are still employed at the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), the body that polices the restrictions, and more recruits are wanted.

“They are needed to handle other women,” said an official from the ministry.

The official said the Taliban has hired women to monitor Instagram pages and report instances where women post pictures with uncovered faces.

“You know how Instagram works … they can hide their pages so no one can see them, but we have women who are our eyes,” said the official, who works at the ministry’s women’s department.

He added that some women are coerced into this role, while others are paid for their work, which also includes accompanying male Taliban members on street patrols.

“Some women were arrested and released only on the condition that they inform the ministry of any illegal activity they observe from the women they follow,” the official said.

Though some women are only too happy to oblige:

One of the women working for the MPVPV is a female informant known as Golnesa. The 36-year-old spends her days monitoring and reporting on her fellow Afghan women – some of the most oppressed in the world.

“It varies from day to day,” she said. “Some days, I patrol the city to look for those who do not adhere to the rules of chastity.

“Other days, I visit different locations to find women who are not following the dress code, I go to busy supermarkets and women’s clothing shops.”

When she spots a woman with an uncovered face or visible ankles or a woman laughing with shopkeepers, she refrains from intervening personally.

“They would say ‘Oh, you are a woman too, why are you doing this?’”

Instead, she contacts male officers who arrive with American rifles slung over their shoulders.

“It’s their job to handle the situation with these women, and many of them are taken to police stations,” she says.

“I don’t support women who protest in the streets and claim to represent all women,” she says. “They don’t represent me or many other Muslim women who are tired of seeing indecency.

“Supporting the infidels isn’t freedom,” she added. “True freedom means women should stay at home, raise their children, serve their husbands and not worry about anything else.

“This is an Islamic country, our brothers fought so hard to kick the infidels out, we cannot just let a few women endanger the religion.

“I am proud to be helping the brothers implement the new rules, women initially thought our brothers were joking, but now everything is law and passed by Amir al-Mu’minin,” she says, referring to the Taliban’s supreme leader. “I have a holy duty.”

Here's her freedom. The Taliban, in one image:

[Image: Ebrahim Noroozi/AP]