Islamic scholars to decide role of women in Afghanistan: Kabul Mayor

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani, the Taliban-appointed Kabul Mayor, stated that a journalist had falsely claimed that he, as the mayor of Kabul, had stated that women would not be allowed to work.

According to the media reports, he had said that only those women municipal workers in Kabul whose positions men "could not fill" have been permitted to return to their posts. However, those women whose work can be done by men have been asked to stay at home "until the situation is normalised". Their salaries will be paid.

Speaking to WION correspondent Anas Mallick in an interview, he claimed the Taliban have never said that women should not come to work.

The exclusive interview is below:

WION: It's been over a month since the Taliban takeover, how do you see the situation in Kabul city now?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: Thank you so much for coming, I welcome you. There are big changes that have come in in the past one month, a new government came in. When we first came to Kabul on day one, the situation was quite bad and people were using the Taliban’s name and seeking benefits. At that time, the crime rate was quite high. Since the Taliban took over, the crime rate is at zero. At this point, the situation in Kabul is quite normal.

WION: Will you allow women to work?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: About women, we did a press conference yesterday at GMIC. A journalist wrongly alleged that I have as the mayor of Kabulsaid that women will not be allowed to work. No it's not like that.
About women, the Islamic Emirate government is working out a way to ensure that the rights of women are delivered within the framework of Sharia. Our Ulemas are working on the framework within Sharia and as per the teachings of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).

This is upon Ulema and they are working on a law to ensure the Islamic framework for women so that they can study, work and do general community interaction, there would bea meeting soon to decide the framework.

WION: Have you assessed the workforce if women are not allowed to work? Because, for the past 20 years, we have seen women are now an integral part of the society. They are literally in every corner and every place, so if you don’t allow them over here, would this not serve as a hindrance because the international community wants them to beincluded as inclusive concept as well?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: We have never said that women should not come to work. For the time being, they should come to work, until our Ulemas don’t devise a framework for their movement within Sharia then all the women should go out and do their work as per the framework.

WION: Coming to the security situation, we recently saw an attack by ISIS in Kabul. How do you intend on securing the city specifically the area where you govern?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: There is no doubt that Daesh is not present in Afghanistan. The Daesh members who were foreigners have left. Those in Daesh now are those who are Afghans. Our, Taliban’s intelligence is following Daesh so that we can get rid of them, fight them, and eliminate them. In the past month, we have seen that Daesh’s activities have been reduced. For example, what happened in Jalalabad, one or two attacks were claimed by Daesh, but there were no attacks here in Kabul.

WION: Will you be seeking international donors to run the capital city of Kabul because in the absence of recognition by the international community, how do you intend on running the city affairs?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: Our request is for the international community on a humanitarian basis. Human beings are living creatures. We want that our relations with all foreign countries should be good, they should assist us and we should help them too. That's the reason government of the Islamic Emirate is trying to ensure it has good relations with foreign governments under the Islamic framework to work out if there are any issues, to solve them.

In the past 20 years, the international community was working with the Kabul municipality, they enjoyed a good relationship which has now stopped. We are now holding meetings with UNOPS, Mercy Corps – German Foundation, European Union, we are trying to get some projects from them so that the city of Kabul can benefit, fundraising can be done through that so that Kabul can be developed through it.

WION: You were previously the mayor of Kabul too, there's a lot of corruption in the capital city of Kabul.How do you intend on getting over it and how different it is from 20 years earlier and now?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: There is no doubt that in the previous government's system, there were problems. There was a lot of foreign intervention too.

In Ashraf Ghani and Karzai’s government, decision-making ability was not with their men. It's like their hands were tied on and the government went on. That's thereason corruption was rampant.

However, now, since the Islamic Emirate took over, the Emirate has its system in place. There are certain things for which we want lawmaking to be done, and then there are some things on which the laws need to be updated.

Now all the things are in control, and by the grace of God, there would be no corruption in our rule. We are going by the Sharia and Islamic framework and have assured the people the same that in our rule, there would be no corruption.

WION: Among the youth who are here, 50 per centare women. How do you intend to approach the task with the international community? Because when you are striving to become a better nation with young people, and 50 per cent of them are excluded, how do you intend to do it?

Molavi Hamdullah Nomani: The sort of trust that donors would want, it's not our compulsion. We will be making a working framework for bothmale and female youth so that they can work according to it.

We will make a system that benefits the young people who have experience. The system will benefit from them. The donors should work here and they should restart their work diligently at the earliest.