MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Afghanistan’s public sector has remained closed for a whole week since the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) rose to power, but the staff of public offices and banks in Kabul hope they will be able to get back to work on Saturday, August 21 (the working week in Afghanistan begins on Saturday, while Friday is a day off), the president of the association of Afghan graduates of CIS higher education establishments, Sayed Mirwais, told TASS by telephone.
"The whole country is taking its time. For the first two days the people felt scared. On the third day life began to get back to normal," said Mirwais, whose home is in the Khair Khana neighborhood in the north of Kabul. "All crucial businesses are open and services available: shops, markets, bazaars, cafes, filling stations and public transport."
In the meantime, according to Mirwais, all banks and public offices have been closed since August 14, but the public sector employees are hoping to get back to work on Saturday. Food shops offer the usual set of items.
"Possibly, the prices have been up just a little bit, but no signs of shortages are in sight. No panic buying at all," said Mirwais, adding he had not seen anybody buying large amounts of food for a rainy day.
"Kabul today is a 100% safe city," Mirwais believes. The locals are free to walk the streets, dine out in cafes and pray in mosques. He complained that the crime situation lately turned for the worse.
"Robbers might stop you on the street in broad daylight and take away your mobile," he said. Now these "marginal elements" are far more cautious.
"The bandits know that the Taliban will handle them without mittens and won’t hesitate to chop off a thief’s hand," he said. Asked if he had seen any Taliban patrols on the streets, Mirwais replied that he did see Taliban members patrolling the streets driving Ford Rangers, but he had not been stopped even once.
"Hopefully, security is finally back," he said.
According to his observations far less women can be seen on the streets these days.
"Yes, there are far fewer women, but those who do get out feel quite safe," he said. Asked about hijabs, he replied that in Afghanistan women had never left their homes bareheaded before, but today they most often use a hijab rather than an ordinary kerchief.
To the question what the people of Kabul’s reaction was to posts on social media about the Taliban’s crackdown on military servicemen, Mirwais said that neither he nor any of his acquaintances had encountered any cases of violence yet.
"It’s all in the social networks. Nobody has seen these things with their own eyes. Maybe somebody did settle old scores in this way, I do not know," he said.
As for the health service, the hospitals and private clinics continue working as normal. A source in a chain of private clinics in Kabul told TASS that female medical personnel go on working and there have been no objections or threats from the Taliban for the time being.