Kabul –
Taliban re-added a number of restrictions on women in Afghanistan. Not only are they banned from going to the gym, but Afghan women are now also banned from going to public toilets.
As reported by AFP on Sunday (13/11/2022), the rules were confirmed directly by the Taliban, the group currently in power in Afghanistan. Indeed, women have been increasingly excluded from public life since the return of the Taliban in 2021.
“The gyms are closed to women because their coaches are men and some of them are joint gyms,” Mohammad Akif Sadeq Mohajir, spokesman for the crime prevention and promotion of virtue ministry, told AFP.
In addition to gyms, he said that hammams or traditional public baths, always separated by gender, were now also banned.
“Every house has a bathroom these days, so it won’t be a problem for women,” she said.
A video clip circulating on social media – which he couldn’t immediately verify – shows a group of women, their backs to the camera, complaining about the gym ban.
“This is a women’s only gym — all the teachers and coaches are women,” said a cracked voice.
“You can’t just ban us from everything. Are we not entitled to anything?”
Previously, most government employees had lost their jobs – or were paid cheaply to stay at home – while women were also forbidden from traveling without a male relative and had to cover themselves with a burqa or headscarf when leaving the house. Girls’ schools have also been closed across much of the country since the return of the Taliban in August 2021.
(country/country)
