The latest restrictions come months after the Taliban, who returned to power in August 2021, ordered access to parks to be segregated by gender. The Taliban banned girls from middle and high school, despite initial promises to the contrary, restricted women from most employment fields and ordered them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public. A spokesman for the Ministry of Coping and Virtue said the ban was introduced because people were ignoring gender segregation orders and women were not wearing the required headscarf or hijab. The ban on women using gyms and parks took effect this week, according to Mohammad Akef Mohager, a spokesman for the Taliban-appointed ministry. The group has “done its best” over the past 15 months to avoid closing parks and gyms to women, mandating separate days of the week for male and female access and enforcing gender segregation, he said. “But unfortunately the orders were not obeyed and the rules were broken and we had to close down parks and gyms for women,” Mohager said. “In most cases, we have seen men and women together in parks and, unfortunately, the hijab was not observed. So we had to come to another decision and for now we ordered all parks and gyms for women to be closed.” Taliban groups will begin monitoring the facilities to check if women are still using them, he said. A female personal trainer told The Associated Press that women and men did not exercise or train together before at the Kabul gym where she works. “The Taliban are lying,” he insisted, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. “We trained separately” On Thursday, she said two men claiming to be from the Ministry of Competition and Virtue entered her gym and made all the women leave. “The women wanted to protest the gyms [closing], but the Taliban came and arrested them,” he added. “Now we don’t know if they are alive or dead.” The Taliban-appointed spokesman for Kabul’s police chief, Khalid Zadran, said he had no immediate information about women protesting the gym closures or the arrests. The United Nations Special Representative for Afghanistan for Women, Alison Davidian, condemned the ban. “This is yet another example of the Taliban’s continued and systematic erasure of women from public life,” he said. “We call on the Taliban to restore all rights and freedoms for women and girls.” Hardliners appear to dominate the Taliban-led administration, which is struggling to govern and remains internationally isolated. The country has emerged from an unprecedented economic crisis that has forced millions of Afghans into poverty and hunger amid international diplomatic and economic isolation and the evaporation of foreign aid following United States sanctions. Afghan women under Taliban rule continue to struggle for basic rights such as education and employment [File: Hussein Malla/AP] “Idle Attractions” The Ferris wheel and most of the other rides at Zazai Park – which offers stunning views of the city of Kabul – were brought to a sudden halt due to a lack of business. Before this week’s ban, it could accommodate hundreds of visitors on days when women brought their children for family gatherings. An empty amusement park is seen Thursday, Nov. 10, in Kabul, Afghanistan, where the Taliban have banned women from using gyms and parks [Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo] On Wednesday, only a few men casually wandered into the compound. Habib Jan Zazai, co-developer of the complex, fears he may have to close a business he has poured $11 million into and which employs more than 250 people. “Without women, the children will not come on their own,” he told AFP. He warned that such decrees would discourage investment by foreigners or Afghans living abroad, as well as impact revenue collection. “A government is run by taxes. If an investor doesn’t pay tax, then how can he run?” Mohammad Tamim, 20, sipping tea in the park during a visit from Kandahar, where he is a teacher, called the ban “bad news”. “Every human being psychologically needs to be entertained,” he said. “Muslims should be entertained – especially after 20 years of war.” Kabul-based women’s rights activist Sodaba Nazhand said the bans on gyms, parks, work and school will leave many women wondering what they have left in Afghanistan. “It’s not just a restriction for women, but also for children,” he said. “Children go to a park with their mothers. Now children are also prohibited from going to the park. It’s so sad and unfair.”
