The Taliban have banned families and women from restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province, an official said Monday. The moves followed complaints from religious scholars and members of the public about mixing of genders in such places, he said.
The Taliban have banned families and women from restaurants with gardens or green spaces in Afghanistan’s northwestern Herat province, an official said. The actions were in response to complaints about gender mixing in these settings from religious experts and the general public.
Since the Taliban seized control in August 2021, they have implemented a number of limitations; this one being the most recent. They have barred girls from attending schools past the sixth grade and women from colleges and the majority of occupations, including those at the UN. They are also prohibited from using public facilities like gyms and parks.
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Authorities claim the limitations are in place due to gender mixing or women reportedly not properly wearing the hijab, or Islamic headgear.
The restriction on outside eating is solely in effect in Herat, where such places are still available to males. Baz Mohammad Nazir, a deputy official with the Ministry of Vice and Virtue's directorate in Herat, dismissed media allegations that all eateries were closed to families and women as misinformation.
He explained that it only applied to restaurants with green areas, such as a park, where men and women might gather. "We set limits and closed these restaurants after repeated complaints from scholars and ordinary people."
Azizurrahman Al Muhajir, who is head of the Vice and Virtue directorate in Herat, said: “It was like a park but they named it a restaurant and men and women were together. Thank God it has been corrected now. Also, our auditors are observing all the parks where men and women go.”
In addition, Nazir rejected allegations that DVD sales of international movies, music, and television shows were prohibited in Herat. According to the Associated Press, he stated that retailers were warned not to sell such literature since it opposed Islamic beliefs.