The Taliban have banned women from visiting the Band-e-Amir National Park, a popular tourist destination in Afghanistan, reported Tolo News.
The Taliban have a history of implementing bans on women doing certain activities, including preventing them from attending schools and working.
The Acting Minister of Virtue and Vice, Mohammad Khaled Hanafi, said the ban was necessary because women had not been observing the hijab inside the park.
He said that the decision was taken because female visitors were not observing the hijab. He added that a procedure would be prepared before women would be allowed to enter the park again.
He stated that going on a trip is not obligatory.
“Women and our sisters cannot go to Band-e-Amir until we agree on a principle. The security agencies, elders, and inspectors should take action in this regard. Going for sightseeing is not obligatory,” Hanafi told Tolo News.
Religious leaders in Bamiyan stated that the women who were not observing the hijab were not from Bamiyan and that the government should take action to address the issue.
“There are complaints about the lack of hijab or bad hijab, these are not Bamiyan residents. They come here from other places, from other provinces or outside of Afghanistan,” said Sayed Nasrullah Waezi, head of the Bamiyan Shia Ulema Council.
The ban has been met with widespread criticism, with many people calling it a further step by the Taliban to restrict the rights of women.
Afghan ex-MP Mariam Solaimankhil shared a poem on ‘X’ she had written about the ban, and Fereshta Abbasi of Human Rights Watch called it a “total disrespect to the women of Afghanistan.”
