Taliban bans women from outdoor restaurants in Afghanistan: report

Kabul: Further restricting women from public places, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan on Monday banned women and families from dining at restaurants with gardens and green spaces in Herat province.

The curbs have been placed for stopping what the religious clerics complained of ‘the mixing of genders’ in public places.

The ban also has to do with the complaints that women are seen without wearing the hijab.

The new restrictions according to reports is meant only for restaurants in Herat province.

Meanwhile, Baz Mohammad Nazir, who is a top official at the directorate of the Ministry of Vice and Virtue called reports of ban as propaganda, according to Fox News.

Nazir reportedly said that the ban was meant only for restaurants with green areas like park where men and women could meet.

‘After repeated complaints from scholars and ordinary people, we set limits and closed these restaurants,’ he was quoted as saying.

The head of Vice and Virtue directorate, Azizurrahman Al Muhajir, reportedly said that the ban on women at outdoor restaurants helped corrected the mixing of men and women, and added that ‘our auditors are observing all the parks where men and women go.’

Since taking over the war-torn nation in August 2021, Taliban has been systematically tightening control over women not allowing girls to school beyond sixth grade and removing female students from universities.

Most recently the decadent regime has begun restricting women from working in offices including jobs at the United Nations alongside banning them from public places, parks and gyms, to stop the mixing of genders.

A couple of days ago, the United Nations asked its 3,300 male and female employees to stay at home following Taliban’s ban on women working at UN agencies.

Following the ban on women working at UN offices, the European Union (EU) said that its aid to Afghanistan cannot be delivered.