Kabul: Less than a month after the Taliban rolled into the capital of Afghanistan, Rabia Jamal made a difficult decision – he would venture hard and return to work at the airport.
With Islamists say women must stay at home because of their own security, the risk is too clear, but the three-year-old mother who was three years old felt she had a little choice.
“I need money to support my family,” Rabia said, wearing a setting and dark blue make-up.
“I feel tension at home …
I feel very bad,” he told AFP.
“Now I feel better.” Of the more than 80 women working at the airport before Kabul fell to the Taliban on August 15, only 12 had returned to their work.
But they are among very few women in the capital who are allowed to return to work.
The Taliban says at least to return until further notice.
Six of female airport workers stood at the main entrance on Saturday, chatting and laughing while waiting to scan and look for female passengers who took domestic flights.
Rabia’s sister, 49-year-old Qustiya Jamal, told AFP Taliban takeover had been “shocking”.
“I’m very scared,” said the mother of five years, which is also a provider of its only family.
“My family was afraid of me – they told me not to return – but I was happy now, relaxed …
There was no problem so far.” Women’s rights in Afghanistan are sharply limited under the Taliban government in 1996-2001, but since returning to power, the group claims they will be less extreme.
Women will be allowed to attend universities as long as the class is separated by gender or at least divided by curtains, the Taliban education authority said, but females also have to wear abaya, all-cover robes, and niqab veils that cover the face.
However, Alison Davidian, a representative for UN women in Afghanistan, was warned on Wednesday that the Taliban had ignored their promises to respect the rights of women Afghanistan.
At the airport, which again in action after our withdrawal rushed to leave it could not be used, Rabia said he would continue to work unless he was forced to stop.
Under the new rules, women can work “in accordance with Islamic principles”, the Taliban have decided, but some details have not been given about what they really mean.
“My dream is to be the richest girl in Afghanistan, and I feel I’m always lucky,” said Rabia, who has worked since 2010 at the terminal for GAAC, a company based in UEE provides basic handling and security.
“I will do what I love until I’m not lucky anymore.” Rabia’s colleague, who gave him the name Zala, dreamed of something completely different.
The 30-year-old child learned French in Kabul before he was forced to stop and stay at home for three weeks after the takeover.
“Good morning, take me to Paris,” he said in a broken French, because five of his colleagues laughed.
“But now it’s not.
Today I am one of the last women from the airport.”