Female Flight Attendants of State-run Ariana Airlines Told to Stay at Home

Taliban officials have ordered female Ariana airlines flight attendants to stay at home, sources told Afghanistan International (AI). The state-run Ariana airlines’ flight attendants have stopped working since March 2022, and the airlines operate without female crew now.

According to AI sources, Ariana airlines’ senior management have "verbally" told the female attendants that they are no longer needed in their roles.

However, the Taliban have always denied firing female employees of the government.

Female employees of the airlines were allowed to work, fully dressed briefly under the Taliban. But, in the past five months, they are only required to sign attendance twice a month and receive 5,000 Afghanis as a monthly allowance.

With these flight attendants now forced to stay at home, female passengers on Ariana flights can receive no help, especially, in emergency situations.

Ariana is not the first state-run organisation where female employees have been forcibly removed from work by the Taliban. Previously, the Taliban had asked female employees of the Ministry of Finance to be replaced with male family members.