Akhtar Makoii
Female spies who spot any women breaking the Taliban's laws are told to call in male officers with rifles Credit: EBRAHIM NOROOZI/AP
The Taliban is using female workers to spy on other women to enforce harsh new laws.
Since returning to power in 2021, the Afghan regime has banned women from working outside the home or attending school and university.
But some women are still employed at the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV), the body that polices the restrictions, and more recruits are wanted.
“They are needed to handle other women,” said an official from the ministry.
The official said the Taliban has hired women to monitor Instagram pages and report instances where women post pictures with uncovered faces.
“You know how Instagram works … they can hide their pages so no one can see them, but we have women who are our eyes,” said the official, who works at the ministry’s women’s department.
He added that some women are coerced into this role, while others are paid for their work, which also includes accompanying male Taliban members on street patrols.
“Some women were arrested and released only on the condition that they inform the ministry of any illegal activity they observe from the women they follow,” the official said.
“It is acceptable when women assist us in combating prostitution,” he added when questioned about whether female members of the Taliban speaking to men violates the rules.
“The ministry needs more women across the country, but the current situation is not good and few are volunteering to work at the ministry.”
The Taliban set up its MPVPV in the premises of the former women’s affairs ministry in 2021, doing completely the opposite job.
One of the women working for the MPVPV is a female informant known as Golnesa. The 36-year-old spends her days monitoring and reporting on her fellow Afghan women – some of the most oppressed in the world.
“It varies from day to day,” she said. “Some days, I patrol the city to look for those who do not adhere to the rules of chastity.
“Other days, I visit different locations to find women who are not following the dress code, I go to busy supermarkets and women’s clothing shops.”
When she spots a woman with an uncovered face or visible ankles or a woman laughing with shopkeepers, she refrains from intervening personally.
“They would say ‘Oh, you are a woman too, why are you doing this?’”
Instead, she contacts male officers who arrive with American rifles slung over their shoulders.
“It’s their job to handle the situation with these women, and many of them are taken to police stations,” she says.
“I don’t support women who protest in the streets and claim to represent all women,” she says. “They don’t represent me or many other Muslim women who are tired of seeing indecency.
“Supporting the infidels isn’t freedom,” she added. “True freedom means women should stay at home, raise their children, serve their husbands and not worry about anything else.
“This is an Islamic country, our brothers fought so hard to kick the infidels out, we cannot just let a few women endanger the religion.
“I am proud to be helping the brothers implement the new rules, women initially thought our brothers were joking, but now everything is law and passed by Amir al-Mu’minin,” she says, referring to the Taliban’s supreme leader. “I have a holy duty.”
One of the women caught by such an informant was Dr Zahra Haqparast after she organised a protest rally in Kabul following the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 2021.
“We always knew that the Taliban would eventually use women against other women,” she said.
“There were girls who infiltrated our WhatsApp groups posing as activists, and they assisted the Taliban in arresting many of the protesters.
“I was arrested because one of these women infiltrated our WhatsApp group and provided my home and office addresses to the Taliban.
“One reason some women work for the Taliban is financial desperation, many were previously employed by the former government.”
Dr Haqparast recounts that during the women’s rallies advocating for their basic rights, many were beaten and tortured by women working for the Taliban.‘Shame on you’
“Girls were screaming and saying other girls were running after them during protests,” she says.
Now based in Germany, the former dentist lost her job when the Taliban returned to power.
She says the number of women working for the Taliban is increasing.
“We protested and sacrificed everything for our fellow women,” she says. “Yet, some women do everything they can to harm others of the same gender. I can only tell them, shame on you.”
Despite promising a more moderate government, the Taliban quickly returned to harsh punishments such as public executions and floggings, similar to those from their previous rule in the late 1990s.
Last week, the Taliban imposed new restrictions banning women from looking at men, speaking loudly in public and even within their own homes.
Women who defy the new rules will be arrested and sent to prison, the Taliban said.