Everyone is at least a little bit aware of the Taliban’s control over Afghanistan. This in itself causes numerous economic issues. The Taliban is anti-women and in its previous rule over Afghanistan, women were unable to work outside their home from 1996 to 2001. However, Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban is assuring this will not happen again and their rights will remain in the constructs of Islamic law. When noting the economic upheaval Afghanistan is currently in helps understand the shift in Taliban policy. The central bank is frozen and the Taliban has access to around 0.1-0.2% of the international reserves. With limited supply of money and the instability of the economy the Taliban cannot afford to remove women from the workforce. Women currently make up around 21% of the labor force. A drastic increase of unemployment like that could cause deflation because of the inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation. There is already limited money in the system, decreasing it even more would cause economic failure for the Taliban. The question is, if the Taliban remains in control and is able to move towards economic stability, will women still be allowed in the workforce? Is this a choice of need or movement towards new tolerance by the historically islamofacist rule of the Taliban?
Sources:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SL.TLF.TOTL.FE.ZS?locations=AF
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-58328246
https://apnews.com/article/afghanistan-taliban-kabul-1d4b052ccef113adc8dc94f965ff23c7
Very interesting. I think that a lot of us, myself included aren't as informed of the actual solid facts about what is going on over there. I had never considered that they actually may need women's labor to reach a sustainable economy, but as I put more thought into it I believe that even though they probably need women to keep working, they may not be willing to allow it. Which could be devasting for the country and could very easily cause a massive rupture in their economy countrywide.
This is definitely an interesting question to consider. I knew that the Taliban was very against women's rights, but I didn't realize that they had banned them from the workforce in the late nineties.