The Taliban is banning ladies from utilizing gyms in Afghanistan, an official mentioned Thursday, the spiritual group’s newest edict cracking down on ladies’s rights and freedoms since they took energy greater than a yr in the past.
The Taliban overran the nation final yr, seizing energy in August 2021. They’ve banned women from center faculty and highschool, regardless of preliminary guarantees to the nation, restricted ladies from most fields of employment, and ordered them to put on head-to-toe clothes in public.
A spokesman from the Ministry of Advantage and Vice mentioned the ban was being launched as a result of folks had been ignoring gender segregation orders and that ladies weren’t carrying the required hijab, or head overlaying. Girls are additionally banned from parks.
The ban on ladies utilizing gyms and parks got here into pressure this week.
Wakil Kohsar / AFP through Getty Pictures file
Mohammed Akef Mohajer, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Vice and Advantage, mentioned the group had “tried its finest” over the previous 15 months to keep away from closing parks and gymnasiums for ladies, ordering separate days of the week for female and male entry or imposing gender segregation. “However, sadly, the orders weren’t obeyed and the foundations had been violated, and we needed to shut parks and gymnasiums for ladies,” mentioned Mahjer.
“Normally, we’ve seen each women and men collectively in parks and, sadly, the hijab was not noticed. So we needed to provide you with one other determination and for now we ordered all parks and gymnasiums to be closed for ladies.”
Taliban groups will start monitoring institutions to verify if ladies are nonetheless utilizing them, he mentioned.
At a Kabul amusement park containing rides comparable to bumper automobiles and a Ferris wheel, Reuters witnesses noticed a number of ladies being turned away by park officers, with Taliban brokers current observing the scenario.
Exhausting-liners seem to carry sway within the Taliban-led administration, which struggles to manipulate and stays internationally remoted. An financial downturn has pushed hundreds of thousands extra Afghans into poverty and starvation because the movement of overseas assist has slowed to a trickle.
