They have no right to education, are not allowed to enter public parks and are forced to wear burqas. Now the Taliban are restricting the rights of women in Afghanistan even further: Even swimming pools and sports facilities that are separated by sex are now banned.
Following a recent ban on access to public parks and amusement parks, the Taliban have now banned women from gyms, gymnasiums and traditional steam baths. The sports facilities are now banned for women “because many had male coaches and in some studios women and men were allowed at the same time,” said the spokesman for the Ministry for the Protection from Vice and the Promotion of Virtue, Mohammed Akif Sadek Mohajir.
According to him, hammams – the traditional public bathhouses that have traditionally been segregated by gender – are now taboo for women as well. Women don’t need them because every apartment now has a bathroom.
Public parks and amusement parks in the capital Kabul are banned because existing gender-segregated access rules have been broken “in many places,” said Mohammed Akif Sadek Mohajir. “There was mingling, veils were ignored, so this decision was made for now,” he explained.
The enacted ban was met with dismay by both the women and park operators. “There are no schools, no jobs,” said a mother at a park, “we should at least have a place to have fun”. They are “bored” and have had enough of “being at home all day”.
Since returning to power in August 2021, the radical Islamic Taliban have already begun to massively curtail women’s rights. Almost everywhere in the country, girls are not allowed to attend secondary schools. Women and girls are prohibited from traveling unaccompanied by a male. Outside their own homes, they have to wear hijabs, the traditional headscarves, or even burqas.
