1. Home
2. World

Taliban issues new diktat, after parks now Afghan women can't enter gyms too

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 11/12/2022 1:33:35 PM

Kabul, Nov 11 After banning Afghan women from amusement parks in Kabul on Wednesday, the Taliban has now issued a new diktat for them. The women in Afghanistan will no longer use gyms, reported The Associated Press. According to an official in Kabul, the Taliban are banning women from using gyms in Afghanistan in a crackdown on women’s rights and freedoms since they took power more than a year ago. A spokesperson for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (MPVPV) told the news agency Associated Press that the ban was being introduced because people were ignoring gender segregation orders and that women were not wearing the required headscarf, or hijab. According to Mohammed AkefMohajer, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Virtue and Vice, “the ban on women using gyms and parks came into force this week.” He added that the Taliban “tried its best” to avoid closing parks and gyms for women over the past 15 months, ordering separate days for male and female access. “But, unfortunately, the orders were not obeyed and the rules were violated, and we had to close parks and gyms for women,” said Mohajer. “In most cases, we have seen both men and women together in parks and, unfortunately, the hijab was not observed. So we had to come up with another decision and for now we ordered all parks and gyms to be closed for women.” The amusement parks and gyms will be monitored to check if women are still using them, Mohammed AkefMohajer said. The UN special representative in Afghanistan for women, Alison Davidian, condemned the ban. “This is yet another example of the Taliban’s continued and systematic erasure of women from public.