A spokesman for the Ministry for Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Mohammad Akif Muhajir told local media that Afghan women are no longer allowed to visit parks.
Muhajir said: “For the last 14 or 15 months we have been trying to create an environment according to Sharia (Islamic law) and our culture for women to go to the parks,” he said, according to Reuters.
“Unfortunately, the owners of the parks did not cooperate very well with us, nor did the women wear the hijab as suggested. For now, it has been decided that they are banned,” he continued.
It was not said how long the ban would last.
In May this year, the Taliban decreed that women must cover their faces in public, with the ideal face covering being the all-encompassing burqa, Insider’s Alia Shoaib reported.
If a woman does not follow these rules, her father or closest male relative will be visited and eventually imprisoned or fired from government jobs.
Since the Taliban took Kabul in August 2021, they have enforced criminal laws restricting women’s lives and activities.
Speaking to Insider to mark one year of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, women’s rights activist Yalda Royan described her country as “a kind of cage for Afghan women; Rights to education, rights to work – every fundamental right.”
