Afghanistan bans women from gyms, public baths in another Taliban crackdown
Most of the female government workers were laid off, and were asked to stay at home — women were also banned from travelling without a male relative.
- World News
- 2 min read
Taliban on Sunday announced that the gyms and public baths are now off-limits to Afghan women. This was another attempt by the hardline fundamentalist regime to shut women out of public life since the fall of Kabul. The regime had earlier pledged to ensure equal rights for women as opposed to their first stint in power that ended in 2001. Although, according to Afghan press reports, women are now barred from the public arenas where men freely move. Most of the female government workers were laid off, and were asked to stay at home — women were also banned from travelling without a male relative or without hijab outside their homes.
'Do we not have the right to anything at all?' ask Afghan women
Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir, spokesman for the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue, reportedly told agencies that Taliban had shut the gyms for women because their trainers were males. “Hammams”, the traditional public bathing houses were also now segregated. Women have decried the Taliban's ideology saying that they have shut the parks, gyms, and hammams to confine the women at home. The latter was seen criticizing the gym ban in the visuals circulating on social media. "Do we not have the right to anything at all?” some women questioned.
Gym and public park closures are the fundamentalist group's latest attempt at cracking down on women's rights and freedoms. After they came to power, the Taliban banned girls from middle school and high school, violating their promises to the country to give women rights. They restricted women from most fields of employment and ordered them to wear head-to-toe-covered clothing or burqa in public spaces. A spokesman from the Ministry of Virtue and Vice of Taliban said the ban was being introduced because the gender segregation orders were being flouted, and women were not wearing the required hijab, or head covering and breaking the laws. Mohammed Akef Mohajer, a Taliban-appointed spokesman for the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, told AP that the group had “tried its best” over the past 15 months to avoid closing parks and gyms for women, but rules were being broken.