Taliban Bans Women from Popular Afghan National ParkGrowing Restrictions on Afghan Women’s RightsInternational Condemnation of Taliban’s Regressive Policies
The Taliban said security troops will keep women out of Bamiyan’s Band-e-Amir National Park.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban have prohibited women from entering a popular national park.
According to Afghanistan’s all-male Vice and virtue ministry, security forces will be used to prevent women from entering the famed Band-e-Amir National Park in the Bamiyan province.
After visiting the area, Minister Mohammad Khalid Hanafi reported that women in the park were not donning the hijab correctly.
Mr. Hanafi notified officials and religious clerics of this alleged violation, adding that “women are not required to go sightseeing.”
Since the Taliban’s return to power in August 2021, 20 years after being overthrown by U.S. forces, women and girls have been subjected to an increasing number of restrictions.
In November 2012, the Taliban-led government prohibited women from using public spaces, including parks, citing violations of the hijab or evident disregard for gender segregation laws.
Afghanistan is the only country that bans girls from secondary school and university.
The chairman of a UAE group offering scholarships to Afghan women says it’s illegal for them to study abroad.
The Taliban have intervened in the careers of Afghan women, preventing them from working for local and nongovernmental organizations.
The fundamentalist group has repeatedly suppressed women’s freedom-demanding protests.
“Walls erecting against women”
A human rights chief has harshly criticized the Taliban’s most recent action, stating that every residence is now “a prison.”
Heather Barr, associate director of women’s rights at Human Rights Watch, stated, “The Taliban are not satisfied with depriving girls and women of education, employment, and freedom of movement; they also want to take away their access to parks, sports, and now even nature, as evidenced by this latest ban on women visiting Band-e-Amir.
“Step by step, the prison walls are closing in on women as every home becomes a prison.”
The regressive policies prompted widespread condemnation, including from countries with a Muslim majority.
Turkey described the university prohibition as “neither Islamic nor humane,” while Saudi Arabia, which up until 2019 had imposed multiple restrictions on women, expressed “astonishment and regret” at the denial of university education to Afghan women.
In 2009, Band-e-Amir became Afghanistan’s first national park, drawing tens of thousands of visitors to its blue lakes.
