Confusion after Taliban decree to cap women's salaries
The Taliban's decree to cap female salaries has caused widespread confusion and sparked protests among women employees.
16 Jul 2024
On 3 June 2024, Afghan social media activist Sheikh Hamid, who has 214,000 followers, posted an unverified letter from the General Directorate of Administrative Affairs of the Taliban administration. The letter, addressed to the National Environmental Protection Agency (NEPA), conveyed a decree from the Taliban's Supreme Leader, Mawlawi Hibatullah Akhundzada, regarding female staff salaries. The letter quoted the decree as follows:
"All female employees in government agencies who were appointed by the previous administration and are still being paid by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, their salaries in all budgetary and non-budgetary units should be fixed at AFN 5,000 [equivalent to GBP 54.97 as of 5 July 2024]. The amount of salary should be the same for all."
The letter was subsequently widely circulated by independent Afghan media outlets and social media users.
According to a video report published on 7 June, sources from the Taliban confirmed to BBC Pashto that the letter was authentic. However, both BBC and Amu TV highlighted confusion about whether the decree applied to those banned from work and receiving salaries at home, or all female employees including those actively working and going to their jobs.
Similar letters were allegedly sent by the Taliban's General Directorate of Administrative Affairs to other government agencies, including one to the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, which was posted to social media by a University Professor affiliated with the Hizb-e Islamic party, Fazl-ul-Hadi Wazeen. Online users also circulated internal communication in the form of an official letter addressed to the Ministries of Finance and Education, indicating that they received a similar letter with the same order from the Supreme Leader.
A letter addressed to the Minister of Education and dated 27 June was shared by Zan TV, a local media outlet focused on women’s affairs. According to the letter, the deputy directorate for resources and administration requested clarification from the minister regarding female staff salaries.
The deputy directorate argued that updating the automatic salary payment system would take some time if salary amounts needed to be changed, and noted the lack of clarification in the Supreme Leader’s decree. In response, the minister ordered the suspension of salary payments to female staff until the issue is resolved and the automatic payment system is updated accordingly.
On 4 July, an audio message circulated on social media featuring Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid, which stated that the salary issue has been resolved. In the message, Mujahid also said that the order of a salary restriction only applies to women who did not come to work in the past two years. Following this, he explained that the female teachers, doctors, and those currently working would receive their salaries as they had before. AW analysts confirm the voice recording belongs to Mujahid.
Officials from the Ministry of Finance reportedly provided a similar clarification regarding female staff salaries to Tolo News and BBC Persian. On 7 July 2024, Tolo News shared an update claiming that the Ministry of Finance confirmed to the outlet that female employees are currently receiving their salaries.
According to Tolo News, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Finance told the outlet that the monthly salaries have been set at 5,000 Afghanis for those female employees who “do not show up for their duties.” A similar post was shared on 8 July by BBC Persian, which quoted Ahmadwali Haqmal, the spokesman of the Ministry of Finance, who allegedly said that the Ministry will pay the salaries of female employees in the month of Gemini (June).
Verification of the letter and confirmation by local sources
AW noted that both versions of the Ministry of Education letter posted on social media appeared to be authentic. Although very similar, the only difference between the two letters, in terms of content, was the length of the Minister’s instruction. In one version, the instruction was a brief order stating that the request was approved. In the other version, which based on its date appears to be the most recent, the order specified that salaries should be suspended until further notice.
A female schoolteacher working in Police District (PD) 12 of Kabul City (contacted by AW on 1 July), confirmed to AW that the payroll for this month's salary was prepared only for the male staff at the school where she works, and appeared to exclude female staff.
Women’s protests following the decree
On 29 June, female staff of at least four hospitals, including the Indira Gandhi Children's Hospital, Stomatology Hospital, Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, and Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Kabul protested the decision to limit their salaries to 5,000 AFN.
AW geolocated four videos of women on strike in response to the order which were published by local outlet, Zawia News, and Afghanistan International. The imagery was located at the Stomatology hospital located in PD2, Kabul [34.519229, 69.177160] and the Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in PD10 [34.537991, 69.188845].
The video and images of the protest were also circulated by other local media outlets, including Hasht-e Subh Daily and Chashm News. AW notes that the protests by the female healthcare workers constituted the first outdoor protest since International Women’s Day in March 2024, when a group of women held an outdoor protest in Taloqan, Takhar province.
On 2 July, Afghanistan International shared a video of an indoor protest reportedly held by female teachers, allegedly in Kabul, in which they read a letter arguing that the Taliban’s decision aims to remove more women from society and administrative environments. The protesting women highlighted that while poverty has reached its peak in society, the cut in salaries of female state employees and female teachers, who are the sole economic providers in their families, will worsen the situation and the already severe economic hardships experienced by Afghan women.
The group requested that the UN, international community and women’s rights defenders protest against the Taliban’s decision, claiming that 5,000 AFN is not enough to cover the most necessary, basic expenses, such as rent. In the video, several women could be seen holding papers, with messages reading: “Afghanistan returned to a period of ignorance,” “Stop discrimination against women,” “You can’t erase women from society,” “5,000 Afghanis monthly wage is not enough for us” and “Rights, justice and freedom.”
Afghanistan International reported on 3 July that female teachers of a girls' school in Kabul went on strike due to the suspension of their salaries by the Taliban. On the same day, a video circulated showing a large group of school girls of the Jamal Mina High School No. 3 in Kabul, leaving the school and crying. Several students in the videotape said that their teachers are on strike and are not coming to class. One of the students said, “We agreed to study until the sixth grade, what else do they want from us?” and added, “if we stay at home, we will remain illiterate.”
Remarks
The confusion around the implementation of the order and the delay in clarification – apparently over-applied to all female staff rather than ‘just’ those no longer actively working – highlights very poor internal communication between the Supreme Leader’s office and implementing ministries. The readiness of ministries to ‘mistakenly’ apply such a wide-ranging edict could also shows that such a move would not be considered surprising or queried.
As seen with previous edicts significantly impacting women, such as the initial closure of schools and universities, these decisions can still spark organic protest and strikes beyond a core constituency of active female campaigners, showing that despite previous clampdowns, citizens will still protest and show public resistance when their lives are significantly impacted.