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The Taliban banned women from using gyms in Afghanistan, an official said on Thursday, the latest decree to crack down on women’s rights and freedoms since the religious group took power more than a year ago.
The Taliban occupied the country last year, taking power in August 2021. Despite initial commitments to the country, they banned girls from attending middle and high schools, restricted women from most fields of employment, and ordered them to wear head-to-toe public attire.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Ethics and Wicked said the ban was introduced because people were ignoring gender segregation orders and women were not wearing the required hijab or headscarf.
Women are also banned from the park. A ban on women using gyms and parks took effect this week.
Mohammad Akef Mohajer, a spokesman for the Taliban-appointed Ministry of Wickedness and Virtue, said the group had “did its best” over the past 15 months to avoid closing parks and gyms for women, and ordered a mid-week ban for men and women. Visit on different days or implement gender segregation.
“But, unfortunately, the order was not followed, the rules were violated, and we had to close the women’s park and gym,” Majer said.
“For the most part, we saw men and women in parks together, unfortunately, no headscarves were observed. So we had to make another decision and now we have ordered all parks and gyms closed to women. He said Taliban teams would start monitoring the facilities to check if women were still using them.
Hardliners appear to dominate the Taliban-led government, which has struggled to govern and remain isolated internationally.
The economic downturn has pushed millions of Afghans into poverty and starvation as the inflow of foreign aid has slowed to a trickle.
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