Mohmmad Khaled Hanafi, Taliban’s acting minister of virtue and vice, a ministry in charge of policing public morality and behavior, called on security forces and clerics to forbid women from visiting the Band-e-Amir, one of Afghanistan’s most popular national parks last week.
Hanafi said in his last visit to Bamyan Province where the Band-e-Amir National Park is located that women did not observe proper hijab -- referring to their enforced way of women’s dressing -- according to an Associate Press report.
Band-e-Amir became the first national park of Afghanistan in 2009 and attracted visitors and tourists until the fall of the Afghan government in August 2021.
“I expected nothing but all these restrictions from the Taliban,” Nilofar, an Afghan girl from Bamyan, said. “I remember when girls biked and freely walked across the park.”
Human Rights Watch generally describes the Taliban’s policies as “severely restricting basic rights-particularly those of women and girls.” Richard Bennett, the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan asked on his X, formerly known as Twitter, page, “Can someone please explain why this restriction on women visiting Bande Amir is necessary to comply with Sharia and Afghan culture?”
Since the Taliban takeover of the central power in August 2021, millions have been affected by restrictions imposed, largely on women and girls. The de-facto authorities have banned girls from secondary and higher education, work, traveling without a male family member and appearing in public spaces such as gyms, bathhouses and other areas in the course of 2 years.
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