Detailing the latest restrictions on women by the new Taliban rules, the interim mayor of Afghanistan‘s capital Hamdullah Namony said on Sunday that female employees in the Kabul city government have been told to stay home. However, women will be allowed for those who cannot be replaced by men.

The decision to ban most female city workers only makes it clearer that the Taliban are enforcing their harsh interpretation of Islam despite initial promises of being tolerant and inclusive. In their previous rule in the 1990s, the Taliban had barred girls and women from schools, jobs and public life.

He said that before the Taliban takeover last month, just under one-third of close to 3,000 city employees were women and that they had worked in all departments.

Namony said the female employees have been ordered to stay home, pending a further decision. He said exceptions were made for women who could not be replaced by men, including some in the design and engineering departments.

“There are some areas that men can’t do it, we have to ask our female staff to fulfill their duties, there is no alternative for it,” he said.

In recent days, the interim government issued several decrees, rolling back the rights of girls and women. They said that female students of middle and high school were not allowed to return but boys were.

The female university students were informed that studies would take place in gender-segregated settings from now on. They would also be abiding by a strict Islamic dress code.

Under the US-backed government deposed by the Taliban, university studies had been co-ed, for the most part.

On Friday, the Taliban shut down the Women’s Affairs Ministry, replacing it with a ministry for the “propagation of virtue and the prevention of vice” and tasked with enforcing Islamic law.

On Sunday, just over a dozen women staged a protest outside the ministry, holding up signs calling for the participation of women in public life. “A society in which women are not active is (sic) dead society,” one sign read.

The protest lasted for about 10 minutes.