As the pandemic-related remote work model fades in most parts of the world, women in Afghanistan have found the practice a potential remedy to the Taliban’s ban on women being employed outside the home.

Women employed by the United Nations and other international aid agencies are often provided laptops and links to networks that enable them to keep earning paychecks without explicitly violating the Taliban’s rules.

The Taliban ban, imposed on Afghan women working for nongovernmental organization in December 2022 and extended in April 2023 on women who work for U.N. agencies, has impacted thousands of Afghan women who work for international aid agencies in Afghanistan.

The Islamist leadership has fired all female government employees, except in the health and education ministries, and has set up a men-only interim government.

While remote work has ensured women do not lose income, a lifeline for many female-headed households, there are questions about the long-term viability of the practice.

Amid extremely limited access to electricity, internet and other technological resources in the country, there is also no policy clarity from a hardline Islamist government that has systemically deprived women of their fundamental social and political rights.

“By the time the U.N. perfects the work from home model the Taliban might ban internet or the sites that are used to work,” said Pashtana Durrani, executive director of Learn Afghan, a non-governmental organization promoting education for girls.