Taliban bans Women from Parks and Gyms

TNI Bureau: An official said on Thursday that the Taliban has formally outlawed women using gyms in Afghanistan, the latest order the Islamist group has issued since assuming control more than a year ago. Earlier In August 2021, the Taliban took control of the nation after taking it last year. Despite their original pledges to the nation, they have prohibited girls from attending middle and high school, barred women from most professions, and mandated that they dress head to toe in public.

The Ministry of Virtue and Vice’s spokesman claimed that the restriction was being implemented because people were disobeying rules requiring gender segregation and because women were not adopting the mandatory hijab, or head covering. Parks are likewise off limits to women.

The law came into force this week, withwith the implementation of the prohibition on women accessing parks and gyms.

Afghanistan's women under Taliban rule:

– Deprived of going to the park
– Barred from secondary schools
– Imposed "Niqab"
– Restrictions on media work
– Travel restrictions
– Deprived of studying journalism
– No right to protest
– Deprived of going to the "women's bath"
…

— Abu Muslim Shirzad (@MuslimShirzad) November 10, 2022

The committee “did its best,” according to Mohammed Akef Mohajer, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Vice and Virtue “the past 15 months to prevent imposing gender segregation, ordering distinct days of the week for male and female access, or banning parks and gyms to women. But regrettably, the commands were not followed, and the regulations were broken, therefore we had to close the parks and the gyms for ladies “Mahjer remarked.

“Unfortunately, the hijab was not observed in the majority of the parks where we saw men and women interacting. Therefore, we had to make another choice, and for the time being we ordered that all parks and gyms be closed to women.” He added Taliban troops would start watching businesses to see if women were still using them.

The Taliban-led government, which struggles to govern and is still ostracised internationally, seems to be dominated by hard-liners. As international help has dwindled to a trickle, an economic collapse has pushed millions more Afghans into poverty and famine.