USA

USA

INDIA

India

BANGLADESH

BANGLADESH

NEPAL

Nepal

FIJI

FIJI

PAKISTAN

Pakistan

Melody Media Productions

Excellence in Broadcasting!

Pervez Saleem

(Producer/Director)

Taliban ban women from parks, morality ministry says

Courtesy: Dawn News/Reuters

Afghan women will no longer be allowed in parks, a spokesperson for the Taliban’s morality ministry said, in part because they had not been meeting its interpretation of Islamic attire during their visits.

Mohammad Akif Muhajir, the spokesman for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, made the comments in an interview with local media and, when asked about the restrictions, referred Reuters to audio of the interview.

“For the last 14 or 15 months we were trying to provide an environment according to Sharia (Islamic law) and our culture for women to go to the parks,” he said.

“Unfortunately, the owners of parks didn’t cooperate with us very well, and also the women didn’t observe hijab as was suggested. For now, the decision has been taken that they are banned,” he said, referring to the group’s interpretation of the Islamic dress code for women.

Almost all women in Afghanistan wear a head scarf, or hijab, in public. However, the Taliban have said women should wear long flowing clothes that cover their bodies and also cover their faces, such as the all-enveloping burqa. Some women in Kabul and other urban centres do not cover their faces in public and others wear surgical face masks.

Western governments have said the Taliban needs to reverse its course on women’s rights, including a U-turn on signals they would open girls’ high schools, for any path towards formal recognition of the Taliban government.

It was not clear how long the park restrictions would last and whether they would be extended across Afghanistan.

Park operators in western Herat and northern Balkh and Badakhshan provinces said they had not been asked to stop women from entering yet.

Some women in those provinces told Reuters they were watching the restrictions in Kabul closely and were worried they might be applied in other provinces.

“Here they haven’t restricted women and girls yet but you will never know when they change their minds,” said a woman in Badakhshan who asked to remain anonymous.

The Taliban say they respect women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Islamic law.

Disclaimer:
Sada-E-Watan provides news and opinion articles as a service to our readers. These articles and news items come from sources outside of our organization. Where possible, the author and the source are documented within each article. Statements and opinions expressed in these articles are solely those of the author (reporter/newspaper) or authors (reporters/newspapers) and may or may not be shared by the staff and management of Sada-E-Watan. Sada-E-Watan was created to provide one convenient central location where a user can quickly scan headlines from many news sources. The headlines listed on Sada-E-Watan pages are links to stories on the sites where these stories are located. The goal of Sada-E-Watan is to help readers access stories on web sites that they would normally not have time to view on a regular basis and to add value to the news source sites by mentioning their name on top, so readers can view these sites..

The Sada-E-Watan takes no responsibility for any loss or damage suffered as a result of using the linked websites or as a result of using the information published on any of the pages of the linked websites.

Whilst every effort is made to ensure downloadable content is free from viruses, Sada-E-Watan cannot accept any liability for damages resulting from virus infection. You should take adequate steps to ensure your virus check regularly when using any device.

If you have any questions or comments about Sada-E-Watan, please contact us at: radio@sada-e-watan.com