Taliban replaces women's ministry with ministry of virtue and vice

A group of women gather for a protest in Kabul, Afghanistan, September 16, 2021 in this screengrab obtained from a social media video. Video taken September 16, 2021. ZAKIA KAWYAN/via REUTERS

(Reuters) - Workers in the Afghan capital Kabul replaced signs for the country's women's ministry with those for the Taliban's moral police on Friday, as female former employees of the department said they had been locked out of the building.

A sign for the building was covered by a replacement in a mixture of Dari and Arabic, reading "Ministries of Prayer and Guidance and the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice" on Friday, according to photographs and Reuters witnesses.