The Taliban used their second press conference since their takeover of Afghanistan to say they are trying to come up with a procedure to allow women back to the workplace.
Zabiullah Mujahid used the news briefing to continue to push his assurances that the Taliban have changed, despite widespread scepticism and fears the movement's second spell in power will usher in a return to the repression of their 1990s regime.
"We want them to work but we want the security to be right," Mr Mujahid told reporters at the government media centre in Kabul.
"This is a temporary situation in relation to women," he said.
He blamed the movement's fighters currently providing security in the capital, saying they are not trained in "how to deal with women".
Women who work for the government would continue to be paid their salaries while at home, he said.
Mr Mujahid last week said the movement was "committed to letting women work in accordance with the principles of Islam".
The Taliban's first incarnation governed Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001.
As the insurgency gathered strength over the past two decades the movement set up an aggressive shadow administration in territory under its control, competing with the government, often taking over local services.
The Taliban often also justified bans on girls' education and women working outside the home, by saying they were put in place for the females' own safety.
Nine days since the militants walked into Kabul almost unopposed as Ashraf Ghani's government collapsed, the country now faces a slew of crises.
Prices have soared in recent days and banks have closed, leaving much of the population without money. The health system is dangerously short of supplies and close to collapse, and aid agencies have said the country is in the grip of a humanitarian disaster.
However, Mr Mujahid tried to project a sense of returning normality. He said banks would reopen today and the Taliban would welcome foreign aid if it did not compromise independence.
He called on foreign embassies to keep their operations open and said their security would be guaranteed.
Schools, universities, hospitals and local government agencies, and the media were all resuming operations, he said. But he again appealed for government workers to return to their positions, with many apparently too afraid.
The Taliban also said they would remove the concrete blast walls placed on several main arteries in Kabul that have choked off traffic in the city of more than four million, leaving traffic at a standstill for much of the day.
Mr Mujahid also said peace talks were under way with the fledgling resistance movement against the Taliban. It has taken refuge in the Panjshir Valley, around two hours' drive north of Kabul.
There, Amrullah Saleh, who served as vice-president to the ousted Mr Ghani, has claimed he is the legitimate president.
Meanwhile, Afghan activists slammed the United Nations Human Rights Council for tabling a "travesty" of a resolution on Afghanistan that was drafted by Pakistan, the main international backers of the Taliban.
Comment: "Deeply concerned" about the situation in the country, "especially for women," the World Bank has suspended disbursements to Afghanistan.
The Taliban needs their rebranding ("Taliban with a human face"?) to stick if they want to acquire any semblance of legitimacy. But as the article suggests, this will depend on the rank-and-file members getting with the new program. No doubt some of the recent reports about women blocked from entering their workplaces, and killings of collaborators (despite the amnesty) result from those who haven't downloaded the latest Taliban policy updates (while others will just be standard rumor-mongering). One question that remains is if the amnesty will apply to those translators and their associates who had already been sentenced to death by the Taliban before the amnesty, e.g.: