Law students and lawyers in Afghanistan are filing reports with JURIST on the situation there after the Taliban takeover. Here, a Staff Correspondent for JURIST in Kabul offers his observations on a new announcement by the Taliban Ministry of Justice concerning future departmental hiring. For privacy and security reasons, we are withholding our Correspondent’s name. The text has been only lightly edited to respect the author’s voice.

The Ministry of Justice of the Taliban have sent an official letter to its departments across Afghanistan. This letter states that departments such as Rights, Cases, and Legal Aids of this ministry should take into consideration the below conditions, when it comes to hiring employees and officials:

The letter provides a number of conditions which are listed below:

1. Should be a scholar (they mean that applicants should have Islamic knowledge);
2. Should be honest, have good reputation, and be faithful to the Taliban’s values and principles;
3. Should not have worked in the former government;
4. Have taken part in the war in the past two decades;
5. Have professional knowledge and serve the people in a good way;

The above has raised a lot of concerns and we are concerned about it. The Taliban are finding ways to hire their own soldiers into the different governmental organizations and because these soldiers have no skills and academic background, such actions mean that the Taliban are paving the way for their own.

The above will definitely adversely affect the employment rate, poverty, and the educated Afghans who choose not to leave the country. Government appointments based on the above conditions will also affect the good provision of services by the government entities. They will not be able to provide good public services as the officials will be all illiterate and mostly unskilled.