Taliban And Female Employment

 Taliban keeps coming up in the news because of their weird rules about female behaviour, or, at least, they are quite weird to us here in the West. They have done quite a lot to restrict the work of women outside home.

For instance about 2 weeks ago, they threatened to close Western NGOs which employ women:

The government was once again ordering the stoppage of all female work in institutions not controlled by the Taliban, according to the letter.

“In case of lack of cooperation, all activities of that institution will be canceled and the activity license of that institution, granted by the ministry, will also be canceled.”

There is never an explanation given in any of these news sources as to why the Taliban would do it, outside of them being cavemen and barbarians generally mean people who dislike women. 

Yet, while browsing the alternative media, I recently came across this article about Afghanistan, which states, among other things, that

The economy, which previously subsisted on foreign aid and opium poppy cultivation, has contracted significantly since the Taliban takeover in 2021, with widespread unemployment, underemployment, household debt and poverty affecting around 48 percent of the population.

In other words, there are not enough jobs around for men who have to support their households. Some families have no income at all and are reduced to poverty and begging while others probably have 2 incomes (I mean which type of women are employed by the Western NGOs, could it be those who speak good English and come from affluent background?)

It's virtually the same situation which Europe faced during the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the solutions offered were pretty much the same, the restriction of female employment. In Europe men weren't expected to support their unmarried female relatives (often with the exception of widows/mothers) so single women still could work outside home.

If you look at it from this angle, then suddenly these restrictions appear quite sensible, minus potato sacks, of course, but then are we really in the position to judge?